Stealing Bella
by Violet Bliss
Summary: To repay a debt owed by her sister, Isabella Swan must spend seven nights in the bed of the scarred and scandalous Edward Cullen, her family's greatest enemy.
1. Preface

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**This is my new fic and it's a step away from what I've written before. I plan to update this at least once a week.**

**Reviews are love.**

**JULY 2015 - I am slowly starting to replace old chapters with new revised ones, the tense mistakes have received an embarrassing amount of complaints so I'm trying to fix them all. Some of the chapters might also be a little different, so do not be alarmed. I'm changing them to make them sound better and not worse.**

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**PREFACE**

"What are you waiting for?" she demands. The words fall from her mouth in a seething hiss that almost made him pause. He hadn't expected this passion from her and it both shocked and delighted him. He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen a woman act like a _woman_ instead of a well mannered, cold robot.

He smiled as he ran his fingers over her jaw. From this close, he could see every fleck of topaz in her eyes and the way her nostrils flared ever so slightly. He wondered if she was breathing him in as he was her or if it was out of fear.

Fear, he decided a second later, seemed infinitely more plausible. People were always scared of him.

"I'm not sure fucking you will have quite the same impact as fucking your sister might have. Seducing my enemy's wife sounds far more scandalous than fucking my enemy's sister-in-law," he taunted. Her cheeks flushed as soon as the word fuck left her mouth and he held back a groan at the sight. He wasn't sure why he'd thought her plain, she was stunning.

"Fuck you," she bit back, her eyes shining with a passionate anger as she struggled against her.

He smiled slowly, on corner of his mouth lifting higher than the other as fear filled her eyes. "That's exactly the point, _Bella_."

And with one last glance into her dark eyes, he lowered his his mouth to hers.


	2. One

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

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_Forks, Washington, July 2014_

A storm threatened to split the skies apart the night Isabella Swan arrived at Masen Hall.

The tires of the cab slid in the mud as the car pulled to a sudden stop at the bottom of the curved driveway. The wind caught the door as she opened it with shaking hands. She tried to steady her heartbeat as she looked up at the sprawling mansion that looked infinitely more terrifying in the midst of the storm but it continued to pound heavily against her rib cage, threatening to leap from her chest.

"Are you sure this is the place Miss?" the cab driver asked skeptically, turning to look at the frightened young woman as she stared up at the unlit manor before them.

"Yes, this is it," she murmured, trying not to let the fear paralyze her. It wasn't like she was walking to her execution, but it felt like she was.

"Well that'll be forty-five thirty then."

She paid him with shaking hands, telling him to keep the change as she pulled her bag from the seat beside her. She struggled for a second with the cowardly urge to beg the driver to take her back to the city where she would be safe. She could leave without ever anything in her life changing, without anyone ever having known she was there.

_Then what would Rosalie do?_

The daunting reminder of the danger her sister was in gave her the kick courage she needed to step out of the cab and into the freezing wind, flinching as it struck her hard, making her stagger as she began her way up the curving drive, the trees lining the road offering no shelter against the onslaught.

Her teeth chattered as the rain begun to fall, soaking through her coat and shirt in seconds and plastering her hair to her face as the drops caught on her eyelashes.

"Are you gonna be alright?" the driver shouted from the cab that he'd moved behind her, refusing to pull away until she'd replied that she would be fine, knowing that it was the largest lie she'd ever told.

She felt a piece of her leave as she watched the lights of his cab disappear into the storm but remembered that it would be nothing compared to what she was supposed to give the man inside of the manor.

Breathing deeply, she pulled her coat tighter around her, though it did nothing to fight the shocking cold that was threatening to turn the blood in her veins into ice. She shivered as she stood before the door that was at least five feet taller than she was, a dim light helping her locate the brass knocker whose thud was barely recognized above the sound of the storm.

Eventually the door creaked open, and a small and elderly woman stood before her. Her teeth chattered too hard for her to speak, barely pushing out a hello before the woman pulled her inside and closed the giant door.

The woman didn't stop after closing the door, making her way through the cold and vast hall and Isabella followed silently, watching her breaths in the air as they passed a wide fireplace that was unlit despite the frigid temperatures.

_Why the hell did I agree to this?_

The sound of the storm barely registered as they walked, the only sound in the house seeming to come from the squeak of her wet shoes as it echoed in the tapestry-lined corridor. At any other time, she would have stopped to admire the tapestries and adornments inside of the old mansion, something about it making her feel like she was no longer in the twenty-first century. She almost expected William Darcy to walk out from one of the closed doors and glare at her before declaring his love.

The thought made her smile and then filled her with fear. The man she would be meeting tonight was no Darcy, instead a Whickam who was threatening to ruin her for the thrill of it.

A shiver ran down her spine at the thought of him, as it had each time since her elder sister had told her what she'd done and the trouble that it had caused.

_You can do this._

The words did nothing to rid her of the terrifying images her mind had created and bile rose in her mouth as they turned down another long corridor.

_You might fail_, her inner voice reminded her as she thought about the far from well thought out plan her sister had thrown out at her just a few days earlier. They couldn't risk failure, the consequences would be severe, incredibly so. Coming alone had been a part of the plan her sister had come up with to lessen the chance of rejection but Isabella silently cursed Rose for not thinking about how unsafe it might be. She didn't know this man, and despite their short meetings, neither did her sister.

The lady finally stopped walking, and Isabella struggled to push her frozen body the final few feet from where the woman had stopped, turning to look at her before pushing it open. Light spilled into the hallway and she held her breath as the woman walked inside. With a heavy exhale, she followed.

She trembled and not from the cold as she took in the huge room, her eyes raking over the unlit crystal chandelier to the intricate patterned molding around the well lit fireplace. She noted, as she took in the sprawling mahogany table that had been built for a large crowd and the high backed chairs lining either side and as her gaze traveled, she noticed that not all of the chairs were empty.

At the foot of the table, with his face turned downwards and his shoulders slouched ever so slightly, was Edward Cullen.

The Cullen Bastard, he was often referred to in the shallow society circles her sister and brother-in-law belonged to, groups of people who had been brainwashed for generations into thinking they were better than anyone they deemed beneath them. Edward Cullen was worth at least triple of the richest man in those groups but it hadn't stopped them from shunning him. Terrifying, they called him, powerful and terrifying.

He was also the man who would be taking her virginity that night.

"Sir, the woman has arrived."

Without uncurling from the slouch in the large chair opposite her, the man lifted his gaze to hers.

At the sight of him, her breath caught in her throat and her bag fell from her frozen fingers to land with an echoing thud at her feet. She moved her gaze down, trying to ignore the fierce pounding of her heart.

Her sister had told her about it and she'd heard all sorts of terrifying stories from her brother in law, he'd always made a point to flaunt the disgusting scars that resided on his cousin.

But none of what she'd heard had been enough to prepare her from seeing his ruined face


	3. Two

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**This fic is also inspired by Seven Nights in a Rogue's Bed by Anna Campbell. It's a great book but I do not recommend it for spoiler reasons.**

**Reviews inspire faster updates!**

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Isabella bit her lip until she tasted blood and she fought the urge to turn and run as far away from Masen Hall as her legs would take her. Only the image of her sister and nephews kept her from moving. There was too much at stake for her to let herself become a coward.

Slowly, she lifted her gaze to the man opposite her. He wore a white v-neck shirt and jeans and she wanted to slap herself for noticing the dark hair and muscled chest that peaked from his shirt before drawing the courage to look at his face.

His hair was the most unruly thing she'd ever seen, the copper locks shining in the fire light as they sat in a wild mess atop his head. In another life, she might have wondered what it felt like beneath her fingertips. A strong jawline lined with stubble drew in her eye before she met his intense gaze.

He would have been beautiful if someone had not tried to slice open his face. The scars were large and wide, the largest was at least the width of her pinkie finger, spreading from the top of his right eyebrow and over his nose to finish on his cheek. Another scar crossed over the one on his cheek, creating a giant x on his left cheek.

Moving her gaze from his, she stared at the long fingers belonging to a strong had that was wrapped around a tumbler that she assumed was filled with liquor, a ruby ring danced with reflections of the blazing fire beside him.

"You're late." He said, his voice deep and smooth, wrapping around her like velvet.

She'd expected herself to cower at his words but she surprised herself and held steady, the anger at her sister's situation rising within her at his nonchalant tone, as though he didn't care that he was ruining her sisters life and would soon be ruining hers too.

"The weather made travelling a little difficult." She bit back, her hands surprisingly steady as she pushed back the hood of her soaked coat. "It must disapprove of your inappropriate schemes."

As she watched him take in her uncovered features, she took satisfaction in watching the nonchalance of moments ago slip away, replacing itself with bewilderment and curiosity. He sat up straight then, glaring at her from across the large table.

"Who the fuck are you?"

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The woman, whoever the fuck she was, didn't flinch as his harsh words met her ears. Her large dark eyes stared at him bravely as he stood before him, her wet hair plastered to her head and her large, pink mouth beckoning his gaze.

The only sign that she wasn't as composed as she was trying to let him believe was the blush adorning her cheeks. She was young, he thought as he continued to study her porcelain features, way too young to be letting herself be acquainted by the likes of a well-known asshole like Edward Cullen.

At her side, Charlotte's face flushed with embarrassment. "You said you were expecting a woman, Mr Cullen, you didn't specify-"

He cut her off, "It's fine Charlotte. Leave us."

The woman hesitated a moment "Will you be expecting another one tonight Sir?" she asked.

Edward's mouth curved into a wry smirk. "I somehow doubt it."

He surprised himself as he stared at the young woman before him, his curiosity winning out over the anger. "I imagine the darling Rosalie is busy this evening?"

Her lips flattened into a straight line, a reaction his scars often caused, however other than her dropping her bag, the girl had remained marvellously composed while she stared at him with those dark eyes. Unlike Rosalie, who despite knowing him for years continued to stare at his face with unconcealed horror every time they were in the same room together.

Irritation rose from within him, he had been looking forward wiping the horror from Rosalie's face every time they were acquainted. Unfortunately, the arrival of this beauty meant that he would not be teaching his cousin's wife that lesson this evening.

"My name is Isabella Swan." The girl spat out, her chin raised high as her body fought against the cold from her wet clothes. Her tone was laced with resentment, something that he was far too used to hearing, although it sounded out of place coming from her soft pink mouth.

He wondered idly what the skin hidden beneath her water-logged clothes would feel like beneath his hands.

"I'm Rosalie's sister." The girl said, her voice remarkably soft despite her furious tone. _An angry kitten_, he thought with a small smirk. _I wonder if she bites._

"Well apologies then." He said, his tone full of a confidence that was wavering under the dark gaze of this woman. Although now he knew who she was, the younger sister of Rosalie King. He'd heard of the young woman living with the King's in his late grandfather's estate, but he'd never laid eyes on her before tonight.

Unlike her sister's light haired and in your face beauty, her younger sister's dark hair and eyes made her appear more like the girl-next-door type, nothing like any of the women Edward had ever pursued before.

"Where is your sister then? I do believe she and I agreed to spend a week basking in the joy of each other's company." He said with a cocky grin and triumphant tone.

"You can't have my sister Mr Cullen." The girl said, her strong façade melting away every so slightly as they stared at one another.

"So what, I get to have you then?" His cocky grin turning slightly menacing.

"Yes." She said without hesitation, though he saw the way her hands formed tight fists at her sides.

"Very brave of you to take your sister's place, although you're quite rude to presume that you'll meet my expectations." He drained the dark liquid in the glass. "Your sister was the one who agreed to this deal, not you."

"It's me or it's nothing Mr Cullen." She said, sounding braver than she had throughout their entire conversation and he admired her courage, remembering how he too once was forced to fake bravery while dread stabbed at every fibre of his being. "If you don't take me then my sister's debt becomes void."

"That was not the deal I made with your sister, she agreed to spend the week with me and pay the debt with her body, I informed her that if she didn't, she would have to pay the amount she owes in the traditional way."

"You know she can't afford it." The girl said, the hardness lacing her tone attracting him more than it should.

"That isn't my problem." He said with a smile, his perfect teeth flashing at her.

"You're only doing this to get to Royce." She hissed and he smiled even wider at the thought forcing Rosalie to cheat on her husband with the man he hated the most in the world. His original plan hadn't involved trapping her into this agreement but when she offered herself, despite her disgust of his face, he had become quite pleased with the idea.

"I have no idea what you're talking about Miss Swan." He replied, standing up from the seat at the head of the table and prowling toward her, determination in his step and on his face.

"What are you doing?" she asked, her voice shaky with fear as he stopped in front of her, fighting the urge to turn and run once again.

"Your sister believed that you would be adequate in taking her place Miss Swan, how am I supposed to know that while you're buried under all of those clothes?" he moved forward again and she stepped back, again and again until her back was pressed against the wall and he was hovering over her, his green eyes flashing with curiosity as they locked gazes.

"Take off your coat, Isabella."


	4. Three

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**I was originally going to wait a few days to update but the feedback has been phenomenal so you all deserved it!**

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"W-what?" she stuttered, pressing her back further into the wall in an attempt to put more distance between them. "No way."

His mouth circled into a smirk slowly. "Do you plan on spending the rest of the evening in those wet clothes?"

She swallowed as a dark blush spread across her face and he realised then that Isabella Swan was a very pretty woman. Her porcelain skin and large pink mouth drew in his gaze and up this close, he could see that her eyes were a deep, velvety chocolate brown. He felt interest stir as he looked into her Bambi-like eyes.

"Stop trying to intimidate me." She hissed, holding her chin high while she tried not to squirm under the intensity of his gaze.

"But I get such enjoyment out of it." He stepped closer, trapping her against the wall. She could feel the heat of his body in their close proximity. Her blush deepened.

"I wish you'd stop."

"Why?"

"I don't like it."

"You will." He grabbed at the lapels of her soaked coat and began pulling it from her shaking shoulders and she noticed for the first time that his eyes were the most startling shade of green. At that moment they were staring at her with something she couldn't name.

She inhaled loudly as her coat fell to the floor, the tension flooding in her veins as she looked up at him towering over her. "I doubt I'll really have the choice."

"Believe me when I say that your sister isn't worth all of this." He said, all amusement gone from his voice as he looked down at her stiffened form, her t-shirt and jeans plastered to the prominent curves she seemed to have in abundance. Arousal stirred.

"You don't understand." She insisted, her eyes flashing gold.

"No," he said with a small frown, "I guess I don't."

Very few people he had ever met would be willing to do what she was doing for her sister, and Rosalie King was not one of them.

"Are you going to have me now?" she asked, her voice soft as her gaze slid to the floor.

He stepped closer then, his body pressing against hers as he lowered his face to her neck, breathing in her strawberry scent. She shivered as his nose ran along the line from her neck to her shoulder, trying not to notice the fact that he smelled better than any man she had ever encountered before.

"I'm ready." She whispered and he pulled back to look into her eyes.

"I don't think you are."

Her heart pounded in her chest as she looked up at him, his scent still washing over her despite the small distance that he had put between them as she tried not to let her fear show.

"I don't think your sister is worth playing the sacrificial virgin." He said, thinking about Rosalie. Although Isabella had so far proved to be far more fascinating than her beautiful but shallow sister, the irritation of Rosalie sending her sister in her place to escape her problems swelled as he watched the girl before him shake with fear.

"My sister is worth a lot more than just my virginity Mr Cullen." She said, shocking the hell out of him.

"You're a _virgin_?" he hissed, his tone disbelieving as he looked down at her curvy body. "How old are you?"

She looked away from him, her cheeks flaming. "I'm twenty."

"And you're a virgin?" he repeated, still not quite believing it. Most of the women he'd ever met had given it up before age eighteen and looking at the subtle beauty before him, he still couldn't wrap his mind around it.

"How old are you?" she asked, ignoring his question about her virginity.

"Too old for you." At twenty-nine, he knew that he was still well in his prime but mentally, he was decades ahead of the young woman in front of him.

Hope lit her face then as she turned her head to face him again. "Does that mean I can leave?"

He chuckled darkly and stepped closer. "No way."

The fear came back then, hitting her tenfold as he extended a hand to rest against the bare skin of her shoulder. At the contact, something unfathomable happened between them. Her Bambi-eyes widened as they looked up at him and he lost himself in them for a moment, falling head-first into their depth.

"What are you waiting for?"

The angry hiss of her voice makes him smile as he raises his hand to stroke her jaw. From this close, he could make out every fleck of topaz in her dark irises and count each of her long eyelashes. Her nostrils flared slightly and he wondered if she was breathing in his scent as he was hers.

Or maybe it was because she was frightened.

"I'm just wondering if seducing my enemy's sister-in-law will have quite the same satisfaction as seducing his wife." He whispered, his breath hot across her neck as she struggle against him.

"Fuck you," she bit back, her eyes shining with a passionate anger that he relished.

He smiled slowly, on corner of his mouth lifting higher than the other as trepidation filled her eyes. "That's exactly the point, _Bella_."

With one last satisfied smile, he lowered his head to place his mouth on hers.

Her strawberry scent washed over him, flooding his senses and filling him with delicious anticipation. She didn't move away from him and her lips remained sealed, but it did not stop the gentle intoxication he felt the warmth of her mouth beneath his.

His lips slid against hers in more of a caress than an actual kiss and the arousal that followed hit him like a wrecking ball. He refused to tighten his hold on her though as his lips moved against hers, waiting in suspense for her to pull away from him, or to shove him away in disgust. She didn't, but she remained unmoving beneath his touch.

When he moved away, he frowned and inhaled roughly that despite how unresponsive she had been, he hadn't wanted to pull away from her. He struggled against the urge to lean down again and kiss her so thoroughly that her lips would be swollen.

Her eyes were wide with shock as she looked up at him, he wondered why. What is because he kissed her? Or because she might have enjoyed it?

"Why did you stop?" she bit out, her voice hoarse. "Why not just get it over with?"

He lifted his hand to her face then, running the backs of his fingers against her pink cheeks. "Have you had dinner yet?"

"I'm not hungry."

"That's a pity," he said, his voice low as his emerald eyes bore into hers, "you're going to need your strength later."

He stepped away from her with a smirk, turning away before he could see the shock settle on his face as he opened the door and called for the housekeeper. When she arrived, he still hadn't lost the smirk. "Can you please show Miss Swan to her room?"

Isabella said nothing as she picked up her bag and followed Charlotte out of the room, briefly glancing over her shoulder at him as she exited.

He couldn't wait to see her face when she realised that the bedroom she would be staying in was his.


	5. Four

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**There will be another update tomorrow! A few people have mentioned the length of the chapters and I've explained in my other fics that I'm a full time university student, so a couple short updates a week are all I have time for so bare with me, some chapters will be long and some will be short but I will always update at least once a week! **

**Reviews do motivate quicker updates though!**

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Isabella curled into a ball beneath the heavy covers on the antique four-poster bed. Through the window, she could see that the storm had yet to let up as the wind roared against the manor walls. Its ferocity scared her and fear, her ever constant companion since two days earlier when her sister had come to her in tears, begging for her help continued to eat at her, leaving a bad taste in her mouth.

_Rosalie,_ she thought. _I need to do this for Rosalie._

She dreaded to imagine the reaction from Royce if he had discovered that his wife had spent a week in the bed of the man he hated most in the world. _Why would you do this Rosalie?_ She had put them all in danger, including her sons and Isabella felt a flash of fury at the thought. The two boys had been the apple of their Aunt's eye since birth and she was angry at her sister for putting them in a place where they could be in danger.

Her anger retreated though, when she thought about how her sister had protected her when they were younger, taking on the role of mother whenever their own had failed.

And she failed a lot.

Their drunken mother had been cruel until her death – liver failure. She had never failed to remind Isabella and Rosalie that they were the reason her mother had been forced to remain in an unhappy marriage, not that marriage had ever made her faithful.

Their father on the other hand had had little to no contact with the girls their entire lives, his neglect causing Rosalie to fall into Royce's arms when she was seventeen. She hadn't known then that she had traded her abusive mother and negligent father for a cruel a tyrannical husband who had been responsible for turning the once vibrant girl into the cold woman she was today.

The only glimpses Isabella ever saw of that girl were after her sister had done a line of cocaine. When the drugs were running through her system, Rosalie was almost happy – and that high was worth the consequences. It was easy to see how she had let herself build a large debt to Edward Cullen.

And now Isabella would be the one to pay for the consequences of her sister's actions while she paraded around Seattle, pretending her marriage wasn't full of misery.

As soon as she had moved her body under the sheets, she had realised that the bedroom had been his, his masculine scent completely unmistakable as it clung to the pillows she rested her head on. Apart from the bottle of cologne on the dresser, she might have assumed that room had been unoccupied, there was not a personal item in sight.

She still couldn't believe that he had kissed her. Even hours later, her lips still burnt as though he had somehow marked her, imprinting himself on her mouth where she might never be the same. It scared her more than she cared to admit, almost more than the thought of the things he would do to her in this room, in this bed.

She wondered if he would be gentle the first time, but her surroundings gave her no reassurances, instead they deepened the pit of fear in her stomach. On each of the walls, giant gilded mirrors hung, and another on the ceiling above the bed. When she had entered, she had gasped at the sight of her reflection staring back at her each time she turned her head.

The mirrors shocked her to her core, never had she met a man as vain as Edward Cullen – especially one with a face as scarred as his.

She frowned as she once again stared at the reflection of the pale girl being swallowed by the heavy gold quilt cover. With tired brown eyes and wild hair tamed only by a thick braid, she wanted to scream at her reflection. _Be strong_, she wanted to shout at the scared little girl. _Be brave._

She had waited for him to come to her when she had first entered the room, and had sat in the chair by the window, looking out at the storm before her damp clothes had forced her to change into her favourite white nightgown, its familiar fabric well-worn and soft against her skin as she had made her way over to the largest bed she had ever seen.

It had been hours since she had left his presence and it almost angered her that he was taking so long. Why would he want to draw this out when they both knew what the end game would be.

She wondered if it might have been different if it had been Rosalie to greet him instead of her plain little sister. Her gut told her that he hadn't invited her sister here out of lust, but instead to ruin Royce King by telling him that his wife had given her body to his most hated enemy.

Her knuckles whitened as she gripped the quilt in her hands, trying to calm her racing heart. She'd had two days to come to terms with the fact that Edward Cullen would be taking her virginity, that she would finally be having sex. She had accepted her fate with grace even before she had met the man.

But now that she had…

She hadn't expected the man she had met downstairs. Years of stories from Royce and Rosalie, as well as those from their social groups, she had expected a monster who would rip her clothes from her body at his first chance. She had imagined losing her virginity to him would be quick and painful, she had not anticipated him kissing her.

And oh, he how had kissed her.

She touched her lips for the hundredth time as she thought about that kiss, though she had not responded, it had been unlike any kiss she had ever received. He had kissed her like he had wanted her.

And she had liked it.

She should have been disgusted or angry at herself, but she felt only curiosity. No man she had ever kissed had looked at her like he had after he had pulled away. He had almost looked reluctant to end the kiss while the two other boys she had kissed – both while she was in high school – had been more than glad to pull their lips away from hers.

She wondered if he would kiss her again and then cursed herself for the thought.

It didn't help that she was in this room lying in Cullen's bed.

Technically, he didn't even have the right to use the Cullen name, and it had continued to anger Royce and Edward's Grandfather that he had done so until the old man's death five years ago.

The only son to Carlisle Cullen and his Italian mistress Esme, Edward had never been accepted by his Grandfather, Edward Senior, who had hated that his eldest son had married such a woman. Senior had been delighted to discover that his son's marriage had been revealed as a farce following the loss of the marriage certificate and paperwork. The illegitimacy of the marriage resulting in Edward being incapable of taking his role of CEO and Cullen Industries after Carlisle Cullen had died. The position had then gone to Royce, the son of Carlisle's sister, who hated hated Edward since birth.

He had hated him even more when it had been discovered that Carlisle had left his entire multi-billion dollar estate to his son. Royce might have the company, but Edward had the money.

She shivered at the thought of Royce. She had not liked him even before he had turned on Rosalie so viciously after they had married. If Royce had ever found out that her sister had slept with Edward Cullen – he would kill her.

The door opened then and Cullen strolled into the room, his predatory walk reminding her of a lion, the lamp light casting a dark shadow over the scarred side of his face as he looked at her intensely with those emerald eyes.

She had never felt like more than a sacrificial lamb as she did in that moment.


	6. Five

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**There may or may not be a chapter tomorrow. All of you new followers are inspiring quicker updates!**

**Reviews are love.**

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She sat up against the headboard as he made his way across the room. She shivered under the intensity of his emerald gaze – and it had nothing to do with the cold.

Wearing nothing but a white t-shirt and grey sweatpants, he had obviously showered recently, damp hair clung to his forehead and his scent permeated the room. She resisted the urge to inhale his aroma.

He stared at her with the curiosity he had displayed hours earlier and she fought the reaction to pull the quilt up even further despite her nightgown covering her modestly. She wondered what he was thinking behind those sparkling emerald eyes.

He turned his attention to the plate of food Charlotte had brought her that she had barely touched despite being starving. Her appetite had all but disappeared after Rosalie had asked for her help two days ago. "You hardly ate."

"I wasn't hungry." She said, moistening her lips with her tongue. "Thank you, though."

He shrugged nonchalantly. It had meant a great deal to Isabella though, kindness was never something she thought should be overlooked. He'd even had Charlotte supply extra towels.

"Being thoughtful doesn't make this any more pleasant for me." She said while his gaze studied her with interest.

He smirked. "By this, do you mean me taking your virginity?"

She looked towards the window in an attempt to hide the smile at his casual tone but he saw it in the mirror. He liked her mouth, though he wasn't sure she understood how sensual her pouting lips were.

"You weren't waiting for marriage or something?" he asked curiously. Not a typical practice nowadays, but it still happened for few men and women.

"I'm never getting married." She said simply, her jaw firm and her eyes alight with furious resolve.

"Yes well I imagine being around your sister and King for a long enough period of time would make anyone feel that way, although I do feel it necessary to tell you that not all men are like him."

"All of the men I have ever met have wanted nothing more than to fuck the little Swan. The men I have met Mr Cullen have been vile and arrogant."

He frowned hearing her swear, it didn't seem right, coming out of her perfect little mouth. He pushed the frown away quickly. "Not all men are like that."

"What, are you the exception then?" she bit back, bambi-eyes shining.

"No, Miss Swan." He said, the intensity of his gaze making her breathless as he ran his gaze over the bare skin of her collar bone and shoulders. "I am definitely not the exception."

She frowned while he went over to the tray and bit into the apple that she had left untouched, watching as a drop of juice spilled from his lip to his defined jaw. When she had first seen his face, she had been frightened, the stories of horror she had heard her entire life bubbling to the surface when she had seen his scars.

Now, watching his face from the dim lamp light, she thought that Edward Cullen was completely striking. His features intriguing her more than any Calvin Klein underwear model ever had. He was not the monster her sister had warned her about at all.

He hadn't even touched her more than the kiss a few hours ago.

A glint flashing of something on one of his elegant fingers caught her eye as he wiped the juice from his jaw. A gold ring glinted from his right ring finger. A ring that she had heard from Royce held the Cullen crest, the ring that had been missing from the safety deposit box when Edward Senior's will had been read. It had belonged to Carlisle and Senior had intended for it to belong to Royce.

She felt a flash of satisfaction that Royce didn't have it and it surprised her. But not as much as her surprise that she felt no fear in his presence, only curiosity and something else, something electric and foreign.

She was more aware of Edward Cullen than she had been with any other man she had ever met.

He held out the half eaten apple to her and she took it and bit into it without thinking. A smile threatened to emerge from his lips as he chewed and watched her. She squirmed under the intensity of his gaze.

"I didn't think you would be like this, I thought you would be-"

"A monster?" he finished for her, complete understanding on his face. He had heard for years the tales of horror surrounding the Cullen Bastard.

She nodded and blushed furiously, the pink on her cheeks enticing his gaze.

"Why are we here?"

"In my bedroom?" he asked with a crooked smirk that made her blush darken.

"That isn't what I meant."

He took the apple core from her and placed it on the tray of food before moving it away from the bed and passing her a glass of wine that she had left untouched. She had never indulged in alcohol after witnessing what it had done to her mother.

"You mean, why are we at Masen Hall?"

She nodded as she watched him pour wine for himself, trying not to let her gaze linger for too long on his graceful hands. "I imagine seducing my sister would have been a lot easier if it had been at your penthouse at the Fairview than here."

When his grandfather had still been alive, Cullen had purchased the high-rise building opposite Cullen industries that was a few floors taller. He'd then spent millions making it a residence only affordable for the very wealthy.

It had angered his Grandfather to no end and had never ceased to put a smile on Cullen's face when he had seen the man sneer at him.

"I doubt Royce would handle it very well if he looked out of his office window and saw me fucking his wife across the street."

Isabella lifted the glass to her lips and drank half of the wine in seconds. She wasn't sure what compelled her to drink more, his crudeness or his mention of sleeping with her sister. She drained the rest of the wine at the thought and moved the blankets from over her to rest on top of them.

He watched as she laid herself down over his gold duvet. Her pale skin and white nightgown contrasting magnificently with the colour.

"What are you wearing?" he asked as he took in her vintage style nightgown.

"It's the oldest one I have." She explained with a shrug. "I brought it with the idea that it'd repel you."

I didn't.

"On the contrary Miss Swan, it does nothing but make me want to explore what hides under it."

She inhaled quietly as her gaze met his. Her heart beating frantically as she saw the hunger in his eyes. The air became hot against her skin as sexual awareness rose.

"Take it off." He said do softly she almost missed it.

Her heartbeat pounded in her ears as his order registered. The time had finally come. The reason she had come to Masen Hall in the first place.

With shaking hands, she pulled the nightgown off. She inhaled jaggedly when she turned her head to find her naked reflection staring back at her, there was nowhere she could turn without seeing her bare body.

Turning her face, she almost gasped as her eyes met his.

Never in her life had someone looked at her the way he was in that moment.


	7. Six

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

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**All mistakes are my own.**

* * *

His expression was painted with arousal. An expression that she had never seen directed at her before. His emerald eyes darkened and he no longer looked like the amused man that had been standing before her moments earlier.

The curiosity continued stir within her as well as something else, a heat in her lower stomach that felt completely foreign. When she looked at Cullen, she felt more confused than she ever had. When she agreed to take her sister's place, she'd assumed that she would feel nothing but disgust as he took her virginity, when he looked at her or touched her. But under his gaze, she didn't and that scared her most of all.

She watched the muscle in his jaw twitch as his gaze lingered over her bare breasts and she blushed when her nipples hardened in reaction. He smirked then, knowing that while she might want to be repulsed by him; she wasn't.

When his gaze reached to the bare skin between her legs, she squirmed as her body reacted, releasing a liquid heat unlike anything she'd ever felt before. Pressing her thighs together, she pulled the sheet up to cover herself.

"Stop it," she pleaded, fighting back tears that she refused to shed them in front of him.

He ignored her and closed the distance between them, sliding one long finger down from her throat to her navel. He could feel the muscles clench under his touch as she remained still beneath him. Unwanted pleasure rang through her body as he moved his finger over one of the stiff peaks of her breast before cupping it in one of the hands she had admired.

Her eyes watched him through the ceiling mirror, refusing to meet his gaze as he touched her where no one else had. She wanted to move, to rip her body away from his scorching touch and flee this place. She didn't, thoughts of her sister kept her still.

And unsteady breath left him and she moved her eyes from the mirror to meet his gaze. "You're beautiful," he said, his voice low as his gaze moved from hers to the breast he was touching.

A tear fell from the corner of her eye. She hadn't expected this. Hadn't anticipated feeling the way she way. It was way too much as he touched her gently.

She jerked away and sat up, her eyes wide with fury and her cheeks bright. "Can you just get it over with?"

He didn't move under her gaze, staring at her for a few long moments before bending to the floor and picking up her nightgown before throwing it at her and turning and walking away. When he reached the door he turned his head back to look at her, his gaze cold and his jaw clenched. "Please excuse me Miss Swan," he said, his voice and frosty as his eyes, "I don't quite feel like deflowering you just yet."

And then he left.

* * *

The next morning he found her by the front door in the same clothes from the previous night, bags in hand.

"What are you doing?" He asked as he strode through the foyer to stand in front of her. It had been lucky that he had been an early riser or he would have missed her.

She turned to face him then, her eyes full of hesitation as they met his gaze but her blush told him that she had not forgotten the night before.

"I'm leaving." She said with a determination that surprised him. He liked that almost as much as he had liked touching her body. And he had liked that a lot.

He chuckled darkly, that crooked smirk once again finding its place on his mouth. "Oh Miss Swan, I don't think so."

She huffed then, her eyes widening and her frown deepening. He noted that she looked better this morning, the shadows underneath her eyes not as dark as they had been last night. She must have slept well after he'd left her wide-eyed and confused.

He hadn't slept at all.

"Why not?" she demanded and his smirk turned into a full grin at her ferocity. He hadn't been this interested in a woman his entire life and he wasn't sure if he liked it.

"Have you forgotten your sister's debt?" he asked, raising his scarred eyebrow.

"I paid it last night."

"I never pegged you for a cheat."

She looks away then, biting her lip before saying in a very quiet voice, "You didn't want me."

"We both know that wasn't the case Bella." He said, his low much like it had been last night.

She frowned. It hadn't been the first time he had called her that and she wasn't sure what to think. When she had been little she had begged her sister to give her a nickname, her sister had refused, telling her that her name was already too nice. She wasn't sure how she felt about Cullen calling her Bella, it felt a little too familiar.

"What happens if I leave?" she asked, turning her face back to look at him.

"Your sister will have to pay me the traditional way." He said, his tone casual despite the fact that he could potentially ruin her sister's entire life. Her shoulders hunched and he fought the urge to pull her towards him, one little kiss and she had gotten under his skin in a way that no one ever had.

"If you won't call me a cab, I'll walk." She said quietly, defeat on her face before turning towards the door.

He ran his hand through his hazardous hair and reached to grab her arm. "Wait."

He let go almost as soon as he had grabbed it, the electric current that he had felt the night before coming back again more furiously than before.

"You don't have to manhandle me." She hissed and he could feel arousal stirring as she glared at him.

"I don't have to, but I definitely want to." He purred and was once again rewarded with her dark blush. She was so unlike the women he was used to. The women he usually fucked were uptight bitches looking for a way to piss their father's off. "Now, what are we going to do about your sisters debt?"

Her fury melted away as fear lit her eyes, the colour in her cheeks melting away. "I came here to pay it." She muttered, her teeth clenched.

"If you leave, she'll have to pay it."

"You know she can't do that without Royce finding out."

He smirked. "I guess he would."

"You're an asshole." She hissed, her eyes filling with angry tears. Her sister would die if Royce found out and her heart clenched to think about what would happen to her sons if she did.

He felt a pang of remorse as he watched her try to blink her tears away – followed by a flash of fury. Rosalie King did not deserve the unfailing loyalty or love that Isabella had for her sister. It angered him further when he realised that he envied her. His father had loved him, but that love was tainted by the grief that had ruled his life after the death of his mother when Edward was three. It was almost as if his father had died the day that she had.

Rosalie was incredibly lucky to have a sister willing to sacrifice what Isabella was. She was also incredibly selfish for asking her to do so in the first place.

"You do know what he'd do to her if he found out, don't you?"

"That Royce is an abusive asshole?" he asked with a cold tone and shook his head. "I hadn't been sure until last night. I had suspected that he hit her but I figured it must be bad if you would come here. I doubt you would have come at all if the consequences hadn't been so dire.

"I can't say I'm surprised though, he had always been violent when we were children." His hand had subconsciously touched his cheek while he had spoken and he dropped it with an inward curse.

As much as he hated Rosalie, he did pity her, her marriage to his cousin must be like living in hell. The coke addiction made a lot more sense now. Any escape from reality must appeal to her.

"Can't you just forget the debt then?" she asked, her eyes full of misery for her sister.

He shook his head and she groaned, wanting to scream at him. "Why not?"

"I don't feel like letting you go just yet." He said simply, before turning and walking away from her. She ran up to follow him through to the library that under any other circumstances would make her grin in awe.

He strode over to the window overlooking the grounds and she moved to stand behind him, resisting the urge to throw a first edition at him. "I can't stay here."

"Why not?" he asked, smirking at the use of her favourite question in reverse.

"If Royce finds out I'm here, he'll stop paying my tuition." She admits, frowning. Her brother in law often used that fact against her- usually for free labour.

"Any other excuses?" she could hear the stupid smirk in his voice.

"You're impossible."

"And you're staying the week." He said simply.

She huffed. "You can't force me to have sex with you."

He turned to look at her then, showing her the side of his face almost free of scars. His smile made her heart race as he gave her a look that told her he was thinking about last night.

He turned around to face her, lifting a hand to her face and running his thumb over the lips he wanted to cover with his own. "By the end of the week my sweet Bella, you'll be begging me to have sex with you." his words were slow and he could feel her swallow as she met his gaze.

"I never said I was going to stay." She whispered, trying to pull away from him. She failed.

"You're staying." He said surely. "Or your sister will have to sell that pretty red Mercedes."

"You're a bastard." She hissed, enticing a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

"I am," He agreed, moving his hand to brush along her collar bone.

"Fine. I'll stay, but there is no way that I'm going to sleep with you." she said and he smiled again, this one actually reaching his eyes.

"I look forward to changing your mind."


	8. Seven

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or Seven Night's in a Rogue's Bed.**

**Over this weekend I'm aiming for three or so updates so be patient!**

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**Thoughts so far?**

* * *

_What have I done?_ She thought an hour later, standing in the same spot she'd been in since Cullen had left the library.

He'd smiled like the cat who ate the canary as soon as she'd agreed while his eyes promised things she did not understand. It hadn't helped that he'd kissed her hand after demanding they shake on it.

The spot still burned where his lips had touched.

This was not what she had expected after her sister had begged her for help and she feared Royce's temper more than she feared the hunger in Edward Cullen's eyes. Royce had broken Rosalie's arm the last time he'd lost his temper and Isabella knew without a doubt that he wouldn't hesitate ending her life if he ever found out that she had spent a week in bed with the man he hated most in the world. He'd kill her without a second thought that she was the mother of his children.

_Not that the asshole ever paid attention to them_, she thought. At five and three, her nephews were the light in her life, their unconditional love making each day she lived under their father's roof worth it. She'd been the one to raise them when their mother had started spending more time out than she did at home.

She hated Edward Cullen for giving her sister the means to turn into a blonde Renee Swan.

Almost as much as she hated the intense pull she felt towards him.

Sighing, she looked out from the window at the sea of forest surrounding the manor, admiring the mountains in the distance. There was no doubt that under different circumstances, she would love being here. She'd never had any chance before now to see something outside of Seattle's skyline. She'd never even seen the ocean before.

"Isabella?"

She turned to see Cullen standing in the doorway with a sheepish look on his face and damp hair slightly curling at the nape of his neck. She wanted to touch it and it pissed her off.

"Yes?" she asked, raising an eyebrow to look as much like the uptight woman in her sister's social circles.

"I forgot about breakfast earlier, are you hungry?" he asked, sounding for the first time since she arrived the gentlemen his father had probably raised before his death.

She frowned, once again surprised by something that had come out from his mouth. He'd done nothing but shock her since she'd arrived. "I thought that using food as a way to someone's heart was only for men."

The change in his face almost gave her whiplash as his expression went from bashfulness to lust as he made his way through the room to stand in front of her. She shivered as his gaze raked over her body, knowing that he knew exactly what was under her clothes. "Believe me Bella, your heart isn't exactly the part of your body I'm aiming for."

A small breath left her lips as he lifted his hand to run his knuckles along her jaw line. "Why do you call me Bella?" the words left her mouth before she could stop them.

Shrugging, he smiles and ignores her question. "You can call me Edward."

"I'd say you can call me Isabella, but you've already disregarded those formalities." She bites back, beyond frustrated with him.

"Well I don't really feel like having you scream Mr Cullen while I'm fucking you senseless."

"Stop doing that!" she hissed as her cheeks reddened and her body reacted to his words. _Traitor_, she thought as she felt the heat pool between her legs.

He threw his head back and laughed then, making her temper spike. He infuriated her more than anyone ever had.

When his gaze met hers again, his amused emerald eyes dampened the fury radiating through her.

He walked away from her then, looking over his shoulder and raising an eye brow as if to say _are you coming?_

She followed without hesitation.

* * *

They ate breakfast in silence, taking turns to look at one another between bites. Edward liked watching her mouth as she chew, remembering the way it felt beneath his own when they'd kissed.

He'd have to kiss her again, he decided. And soon.

"I'm taking you for a ride after lunch." He stated, breaking the silence which was followed by the sound of Bella choking on the juice in her mouth, which splattered over the table cloth as she coughed.

_"__What?"_ she asked, her eyes almost bulging out of her head as she looked at him.

He raised an eyebrow. "Wow Bella, I didn't peg you for having a dirty mind but once again you've succeeded in proving me wrong. I meant riding a horse, not riding me."

Her answering blush was a ferocious red.

"I don't have anything to wear." She said quietly, thinking about the clothes she'd packed for the week and none of them would be suitable protection against the cool air outside. She saved most of the meagre pay check she got from babysitting her nephews almost daily, hoping to make enough to put a down payment on an apartment near her college campus and most of the clothes she owned were hand me downs from her sister from before she'd lost her baby fat or ones she'd found at the local op shop.

"I have clothes for you." he said, remembering the clothes he'd purchased in preparation for Rosalie and she nodded slowly, forcing her attention back to the food she no longer had an appetite for.

* * *

She'd found the stables with little difficulty, wishing she had more time to look around the grounds alone, having no doubt that her attention would wander in the company of Edward.

Edward.

It felt strange even thinking his name after spending years thinking of him as Cullen, the monster who thought of nothing other than ruining the lives of others, specifically Royce's. She hated the warring inner battle between the man she'd been told about for years and the man who had touched her last night.

She stopped in her tracks when she found Edward standing in the middle of the stables, whispering to and stroking the face of a magnificent grey horse who noticed her presence right away.

"Were you trying to sneak up on me?" he asked without looking at her and she blushed.

"Is that even possible?" she replied, watching his bare arms as they continued to stroke the horse.

"No." He turned around then and smiled, shaking his head. "What took you so long?"

"It took me a while to find something that fit." She admitted, her cheeks turning pink as she recalled going through the clothes that had clearly been purchased with her sister in mind. They'd mostly consisted of lingerie in bright colours that would never suit her dark hair and pale skin and clothes that were two sizes too small. She'd only found one dark blue sweater amongst the clothes that had fit her and had had to sacrifice a pair of her own jeans for the cause, determined to make him replace them if they ripped or got stained.

"You're quite a bit curvier than your sister." He said, his gaze lingering over the v of her shirt, where the top of her breasts pushed up out of the fabric. "That's a lovely colour on you." he added. Against her dark hair and eyes, making her unblemished skin glow, his cock twitched as he remembered how soft it had been against his hand.

"Rosalie hates animals." She says, making her way across the stables to the horse without any fear on her face. She was unlike any other woman he'd ever been in the company of. "She never would've agreed to get on a horse."

"I doubt she and I would have spent our time together horse riding." He says with a small smirk as he helps lift her onto the saddle. "The week with your sister was supposed to be nothing more than me getting under Royce's skin."

"And me?" she asks him from the saddle as she strokes his horse's soft coat, awe on her face. Edward felt a stroke of jealousy as she touched her horse with a gentle hand, wishing it was him.

"You…you're something else entirely." He admits, before lifting himself onto the horse behind her and pulling her against his body before taking the reins and guiding the horse away from the stables.


	9. Eight

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

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**See you beautiful people tomorrow.**

* * *

They rode on a path in silence for a few minutes and Isabella found herself in awe of the grounds surrounding the manor. Tall trees lined either side of them as Edward's horse took them further away from the stables, the smell of nature strong around her as the water droplets lingered on tree leaves from the storm the night before.

"It's beautiful here." She said, watching the sun try to push itself through the cloud cover with her head towards the sky, pushing herself further into Edward without realising. He breathed in her strawberry scent and tried to ignore the answering twitch of his cock.

"My father bought it for my mother." He said, surprising them both. He had never been forth coming to anyone, let alone a woman and his admission irritated him as much as it shocked him. What was it about her?

"Why?" she asked, trying unsuccessfully to turn on the saddle and look at his face.

"She missed the country side living in the city." He replied simply, his tone cold, regretting the words as soon as they've left his mouth.

They fall into uncomfortable silence then as he begins thinking about his parents. His father's love for Esme completely irrevocable, there was nothing he would not have done for that woman and he had all but moved the heavens when she had become diagnosed with a brain tumour shortly after Edward's birth. But Carlisle had learned the hard way that there was no cure for cancer. A research foundation ran in her name until this day, funded generously each year by Edward and the members of society who were not too biased to be in company of him.

Isabella frowned mulling over the change in his tone. This man confused her more than any Sunday morning crossword she'd ever done and when his tone was cold, it was easy to imagine the monster her sister had warned her about. It was easy to believe the tales of horror she'd been told about his past.

But when he was kind, it was easy to forget everything she'd ever heard against the man.

In less than a day he had affected her in ways that no other man ever had.

The thought made her heart turn cold.

"Bella." He whispered in her ear, pulling the reigns to stop the horse. "_Look._"

He gestured towards a small clearing on their left, where a doe stood grazing. She gasped quietly, her breath stolen by the grace of the creature as it bent low. "Wow." She whispered, never having seen a creature like it outside of a zoo or a movie. The doe looked up at the sound of her voice and watched them for a few moments before turning and walking away.

This time when she turned to look at him, she was successful. "Oh my god! We literally just saw Bambi's mother!" she exclaimed, her smile wide and he grinned at her enthusiasm.

"_Bello._" He whispered under his breath as he took in seeing her smile for the first time, cursing himself for thinking her plain when he had first seen her. When she smiled she was completely breathtaking. When she smiled it was easy to pretend that she was there because she wanted to be and not because he'd all but forced her to.

She turned back around and he sighed in relief as the horse once again continued to take them along the path. "That was amazing."

"I take it you don't spend a lot of time outdoors?" he asked, amusement in his voice. He liked the way it had pleased her, unlike the other women he'd known, she seemed to have no vendetta against being amongst nature that wasn't perfectly manicured lawns and perfectly trimmed hedges.

"I take my nephews to the zoo every month, but it isn't the same. I've never been anywhere this far from a city before." She said, the melancholy in her tone making him frown.

He shifted, uncomfortable with that fact as they finally made their way through to the edge of the path and lowered himself from the horse and looked up at her before lifting her from the saddle. Her hands remained on his shoulders a moment after her feet met the ground and she let out a slow breath at their close proximity.

"It's hard to remember when you're this close." She said quietly as he lifted a hand to caress her flushed cheek.

"Remember what?" he asked, leaning so close that she could almost taste his breath on her tongue. Her hands fell from his shoulders to his chest and she tried to ignore the feel of the hard muscle beneath her touch.

"That you're going to ruin me." She whispered, looking up from his lips to his eyes, just catching the cross appear between his eyebrows as a frown flashed on his face at her words, almost too quick for her to notice.

"You need to quit being so dramatic." He says, his voice hoarse as he lowers his hand from her face to rest both of them on her hips before pulling her flush along his body, his erection evident as it pressed against her stomach. "I don't plan to destroy you Bella, I plan to ravish you."

"You have to stop doing this." She pleads as his mouth inches its way closer to hers.

"Why stop the inevitable?" he asks before covering her mouth with his own.

She remained unmoving beneath the caress of his lips as she had the night before, trying to pull back from him unsuccessfully, his hands gripping her hips harder at the attempt. When he opened his mouth to suck on her lower lip, her hands pulled at his shirt, the feel of his heart beat beneath her fingertips overwhelming her.

Edward scent flooded her senses, and she nearly gasped as it nearly consumed her. When she opened her mouth, he didn't hesitate to take the opportunity to slip his tongue into her mouth and caress her own gently. The sweetness of it shocking her more than the action itself.

He pulls back the exact moment before she starts to kiss him back.

"You shouldn't have done that." She said, letting her hands fall from his shirt and stepping back from him. She couldn't think when he kissed her, let alone when he kissed her like _that._

He half smiled then, his eyes completely wicked as his tongue reached to lick his lower lip. "On the contrary, I think we should do that again."

Her fury almost terrified him as she scowled at him before muttering choice words beneath her breath.

She huffed once more and began walking back down the path they had come.

She wasn't sure who she was angrier at; him for kissing her or herself for liking it.


	10. Nine

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight. **

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**Are you team Scarward yet?**

* * *

He watched her walk back down the path, admiring the feminine sway of her hips as she stormed off, a crooked smile plastered on his face.

Isabella Swan was already proving to be a lot more entertaining that he could have ever anticipated.

And he hadn't even had sex with her yet.

He wondered how she'd feel beneath him when she finally gave in, thought about the sounds she would make when he touched her and the look on her face when she'd come apart, wrapped around his cock.

The anticipation made him smile even wider.

* * *

She was less than a mile down the path when she could hear the tell-tale sound of the horse and its irritating, annoying, asshole of a rider.

"Go away." She hissed without looking up at the smirk she knew was on his face. She grimaced when she heard him dismount but refused to turn as he began walking alongside her, holding the reins as the horse trailed beside them.

"Not until you admit that you like it when I kiss you." he quipped back, the amusement in his voice adding fuel to her anger.

"No."

"Why not?" he asked, tugging at her arm so that she was facing him. His scars were brighter in this light, the silver lines cutting over his skin harshly and she wondered for the first time why they were still there. With his vast wealth, it would have been easy to find a plastic surgeon who could remove them.

"Are you kidding me?! I hadn't come here last night there would be no way that you would have let my sister off the hook, you were going to use her to get to Royce and you don't even care that he would _kill_ her if he ever found out." She bit out, her voice high as she ranted at him. "

I'm not the kind of girl to be fucked by you bent over the bathroom sink at a party or on the bonnet of your Aston Martin and if it weren't for the fact that you'd given me no choice, you wouldn't be fucking me either." Her eyes widen when she finishes her rant, her mouth gaping and her heart pounding. Never in her life had she spoken her mind like she had just now and she regretted the words as soon as they'd left her mouth.

And if she hadn't been staring right into his eyes in that moment, she would have missed the flash of hurt before his face hardened, his eyes losing any of the playful warmth they'd had before she'd started speaking.

She opened her mouth to apologize, but he lifted a hand to silence her and she closed it. The look in his eyes bringing forth the fear she'd felt as she'd first walked into Masen Hall the night before, the terror she'd felt when she'd first seen his face.

"It seems you're a lot more like your sister than I thought." He said, his voice light and casual, but edged with the false casualness he'd displayed when they'd first met.

He then mounted the horse and left her standing along the path.

What had she done?

* * *

He watched through the glass as she finally appeared through the opening in the trees, while he sat on the window seat with a half-filled glass of scotch in one hand and the other pressed against the glass. He almost feeling regret for making her trek back on her own, but caught himself when he remembered the look on her face when she'd stung him with her words. The same look he'd seen on the face of her sister on many occasions; disgust.

It made his stomach turn when he'd seen it on her face. And for the first time since he'd been a child, he'd felt hurt when she'd hurled her insults at him. He'd been a fool for believing for a minute that she'd be any different from the high society bitches Rosalie was friends with. She _lived_ with Royce and his stupid wife, why wouldn't she think him a beast? Why wouldn't she believe the malice his cousin had been spewing since they'd been children?

Looking away from the window, he downed the rest of the scotch and walked downstairs.

* * *

No sooner she'd closed the large door behind her, she found herself pinned against it and Edward's mouth pressed against hers. She gasped with shock and he took it as an invitation to slip his tongue into her mouth, making her taste scotch and apples. This kiss was nothing like the others, this kiss was hard and punishing and unlike the others, this time she kissed him back.

He groaned as her tongue reached out to stroke his, before he pinned her arms above her head and pressed his body harder against hers. A moan escaped her lips and he pulled away so suddenly that her knees nearly buckled beneath her.

"I didn't mean it." She said, her voice hoarse. "What I said earlier, I didn't mean it and I'm sorry."

He looked away then and ran his hand through his hair. "Don't. I'm used to hearing it from women, specifically your sister. Did you know that the first time I met her she spat at my feet. She'd never even met me and when I introduced herself she spat at me and then told me that the Cullen _bastard _had no business talking to someone like her. I shouldn't be surprised that you feel the same way." His voice as cold as it had been before he left her and he turned to do it once again.

She couldn't believe her sister had done that, that she'd spit at someone. As children their mother had spat at the both of them during her rants about the brats who ruined her body and her life. Rosalie had been the one to explain to a five year old Isabella that spitting at someone means that you hate them, that it was something that you should never do.

She almost hated her sister for doing it to him.

"You-" she began and he stopped walking and turned to face her. "You scare me." She whispered.

He ran his hand along the giant cross scar on his cheek and grimaced. "I scare everyone." He muttered.

"I'm not talking about your scars. You scare me because I can't think when you kiss me and when you touched me last night-", she approached him slowly, stopping when she was standing toe-to-toe with him and looked up at him, "-when you touched me, I _liked_ it and it terrifies me. You terrify me."

* * *

They remained silent as her admission sunk in. He didn't know what to do as he looked into her Bambi-eyes as she waited expectantly for his reply.

Earlier she'd said that he was going to ruin her, but he leaned down to claim her mouth with his own, he realised that there was a large chance that he would ruin himself in the process.


	11. Ten

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**I'm sorry this is later than usual! I will be updating over the next few days to make up for it.**

**And 200+ reviews! I love you all so much.**

* * *

"Are you sure you aren't hungry?" Edward asked from his lazy slouch on the chaise in front of her. She rolled her eyes as he bit into another strawberry but shook her head, trying desperately not to think about licking the juice from his bottom lip.

"I'm fine." She muttered, wishing he would stop looking at her with his lazy, lust-filled eyes.

She looked away from him, straightening her shoulders and biting her lip. Nothing about him had been what she'd expected and the more time she spent in his company, the more curious about him she became. She didn't want to like him. For years the only men in her life had been her nephews and she had been blissfully content with that fact, their happiness meaning more to her than anything else in the world.

She smiled then, thinking about the pinky promises she had made to both Henry and Ethan that she would bring them gifts on her return from her _holiday_.

"What're you thinking about?" Edward asked watching her smile softly. Her eyes were warm and her lips remained turned up as she turned her gaze back to him.

It took his breath away.

"My nephews." She replied.

He nodded, thinking about the children that were also his family but would never know more of him than the lies Royce would spew at them. "Who's watching them while you're away?" he asked, knowing that more often than not, Bella was watching them.

She frowned then and he silently mourned the loss of her smile. "They're at Royce's mothers for the week. It was a condition of me coming here, I couldn't trust Rosalie to watch them and despite her son and husband, Helena is actually lovely."

He remembered Helena from his childhood, how her hair was golden like his fathers and that she had been kind to his mother while she had been alive, if not for her husband wanting everything Carlisle had, he might still be in contact with her.

"Your sister has been clean for a month." He said bluntly, thinking about the way Rosalie had pleaded with him to forget her debt. "It was the only condition of her coming here for the week, I wasn't about to let her into the house high in case she called the cops saying I took advantage or something."

Bella exhaled softly and nodded. "I didn't even notice. She's my sister, I see her every single day and I didn't notice what she was doing. I can't trust her or Royce with the boys and I still have a semester of college left." She wrapped her arms around herself and closed her eyes tightly for a moment before opening them again. "I can't stay there anymore but I can't take them with me."

She didn't notice when the first tear fell, or the way Edward clenched his fist at the sight of it. He wanted to protect her, from Royce and Rosalie and all the hatred in the world.

"Does he hit you too?" he asked, needing to know. He would kill Royce if he ever laid a hand on this innocent girl, she didn't deserve his cruelty.

"No, he knows I'd go to the police if he ever hit me or the children. My sister refuses to stand up to him but I will."

"Why do you stay?"

She wiped a tear away. "My trust fund isn't available for a few more months and Royce pays for me to go to college and gives me an allowance to work for him watch the kids when he and Rosalie are out – which is almost always. He refuses to get a nanny."

"Work for him?" he asks, curious. He knew his cousin was in dire straits with the company's income decline over the past few years but was he really so confused about it that he needed a college student to do it for him.

"Mostly sorting through your grandfather's old files to try to find something of profit. He's already wasted my sister's trust fund on non-profitable ventures."

He failed not to smirk at that.

"So what are you going to do when you get your trust fund?"

"I'm going to find my sister a great divorce lawyer and get her and the boys away from Royce." She said, a small smile curving her mouth. "There's this little house a few blocks away from campus, it's small and looks kind of like a cottage, trees and flowers everywhere. I've been saving for the down payment."

He remained silent watching her face as she continued to describe the small house that meant so much to her, the hope and happiness in her eyes mesmerising him. No woman had ever intrigued him like Isabella Swan had. He'd never met one so completely selfless.

It bothered him how quickly he was learning to like her.

And not just for that pretty pink mouth.

"Stop it." She snapped a few seconds after finishing her description of the house that meant her freedom.

"Stop what?" he quipped, pushing his indifferent mask firmly back into place.

"Looking at me like that?" she whispered, dropping her gaze to her hands.

He smirked. "Looking at you like what?"

He stood then and made his way to the chaise that she had refused to recline on and sat next to her.

She remained silent as his body heat stoked a fire that she refused to acknowledge. She inhaled shakily when his fingertips began tracing patterns on her thigh, over her jeans.

"How do I look at you?" he asked, his voice deep and she bit her lip as her gaze remained trained on the movements of his fingers.

"Like you want me." She said, her voice so soft he almost missed it.

"I do want you Bella." He stated bluntly, his fingers creeping higher.

She frowned. "People don't want me. They don't want the plain-Jane girl-next-door. They want Rosalie or one of her friends and usually try to use me to get to her. If I had been in a crowded room with you and all of them, I wouldn't even be a blip or your radar." She said, her voice soft with acceptance.

He lifted his hand from her thigh and moved to kneel in front of her to force her to look at him. "If I was in a room full of them, I wouldn't notice you. Not because they might be prettier than you but because it's one thing watching the horror on their faces, I can take that because they're shallow and they're vain. It's something else completely to see it on the face of someone like you." his words were clipped and factual as he spoke and made her frown deepen.

"Someone like me?" she asked, befuddled.

"Someone good." He replied with a small smile. "You talk to me like I'm not here to seduce you."

"It isn't something I forget." She snaps back and he chuckles darkly before placing a hand on each of her thighs.

Her heartbeat stutters when he starts to lean closer. His face is less than two inches away when he stops moving. The faint smell of strawberries invading her senses as he opens his mouth to speak.

"What scares you more, sweet Bella? The fact that I'm going to take your virginity or the fact that you know you're going to like it?"

* * *

**So I don't really do fic recs but lately I've found a few that I am completely head over heels for and you should all be too so here is one for now. **

**Isabella by suitablyironicmoniker.**

_**In the Cornish countryside of 1804 England, a foreign visitor brings Isabella to reconsider the inexplicable occurrences she had always taken for granted.**_

**The summary does not do it justice it's completely stunning and I hope you enjoy it as much as I have been.**

**If you want more fic recs let me know so I can add them to updates!**


	12. Eleven

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed, I love hearing your thoughts and theories!**

* * *

Isabella wished she could say that she hadn't spent the rest of the afternoon thinking about Edward Cullen, but after his departure from the library, she'd sat stunned and had replayed those minutes over and over again.

With every sentence he spoke, she found herself falling deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole.

The icy look in his eyes when he'd spoken about the horror in which people regarded scars bothered her deeply. While she'd initially been terrified by their appearance, it had taken less than twenty four hours for her to understand that he didn't play on his scars. He didn't act like a victim or sulk away in a dark castle to hide himself from the world, he lived with a confidence that she had never had herself.

She wondered if, like Rosalie, that Edward's confidence was just a mask to hide the insecurities and horror of his earlier life.

She realised then that she didn't even know how he had gotten such terrifying scars. She'd heard rumours for years – but no one actually knew how they'd gotten on his face.

With a frown, she looked down at her feet and wondered if she would ever solve the mystery that was Edward Cullen.

* * *

Edward strolled into the dining room to find Isabella shifting on her feet in front of the warm fireplace, playing with the long sleeve of one of the dresses he'd asked Charlotte to purchase for her in one of the nearby towns.

He smirked as he watched her tug at the modest hem, not noticing his presence behind her.

"Nice dress." He said, leaning against the wall a few feet behind her and crossing his arms. She turned and scowled at him.

"When I went back to the bedroom to change for dinner, it appeared my clothes had been taken." She seethed.

He grinned in response. "It seems Charlotte needed some new dishrags."

Her eyes flared with panic then, fear completely replacing her anger and his smile fell immediately. "You didn't throw them out did you? I really can't afford to replace them if you have and Royce would notice if I took home the clothes Charlotte left in your room."

He stepped forward then, grabbing one of her hands in his own, noticing the way his hand seemed to dwarf hers in comparison. "Charlotte only moved them into the laundry, you can have them back when you're ready to leave."

She sighed with relief and nodded, the fear melting away. He wished he promise her that he would protect her from Royce, or buy her all of the new clothes she wanted but he refused to let her get to him more than she already had. As it was, he was already fighting the urge to pull her into a kiss, the deep plum colour of her dress making her look nothing like the frumpy girl that had arrived the evening before.

Isabella Swan was not good for him, he decided as he subconsciously rubbed small circles into the back of her hand, noting that she didn't pull away.

"Thank you for the clothes." She said quietly, staring at their entwined fingers.

"You look lovely, it was worth the pocket change." He replied in a cocky tone that contrasted harshly with the soothing tone he had used moments earlier, making her frown and pull away from him.

"Stop doing that." She muttered angrily as she looked back up at his arrogant smirk. She would never admit that she was hurt by his sudden mood change. She was surprised she hadn't gotten whiplash with how quickly he seemed to change from being real with her and being the jerk she'd heard about for years.

"Doing what?" he asked, smirk still firmly in place.

"Being nice one minute and treating me like a plaything the next." She said, successfully concealing the indignant feelings in her voice with irritation.

"And what a lovely plaything you are, Bella." He said, his voice low as he stared at the deep v neck of the dress, showing far more skin than she liked.

He noticed the flash of hurt in her eyes before she turned away from him, his fists clenched as he internally battled and watched as she sat at the table setting to the right of his chair.

He followed her without a word, the both of them remaining silent as Charlotte made her way into the room with one of the maids and sat steaming plates of lasagna in front of them, as well as a salad and bread rolls. Isabella felt her mouth water as she inhaled the smell of melted cheese and tomato, it had been a long time since she'd had any sort of pasta, her sister refusing to have it in the house while on another fad diet.

She waited until Charlotte had finished pouring both her and Cullen glasses of red wine and had left the room before she started eating with gusto.

He watched her eat with a small smile, enjoying the way that she grinned with pleasure after her first bite.

Unlike her regular indifferent façade, she ate without concealing the emotions that would get her in trouble at home, Royce much like his grandfather in the fact that they both held the belief that emotions made a man weak. She'd cried the night Henry had asked her if she loved him as he'd never heard the words from either of his parent's mouths.

She savoured every bite, struggling not to moan with pleasure each time the perfectly cooked pasta touched her tongue and for the first time since she'd arrived, she let herself become completely relaxed in Cullen's company.

"That was the best lasagna I've ever had." she told him when she'd finished her plate, too satisfied to have had food that delicious without her sister making her feel guilty about it to be embarrassed that he was just halfway through his own piece.

She hadn't noticed he'd barely touched his food while she had eaten because he'd spent the time watching her face as she enjoyed the meal with a guiltless pleasure that he'd never witnessed with a woman before. He'd never sat through a meal with one of them that hadn't winged about the high calorie count.

He wondered how many more times this woman would surprise him.

"Italian is my favourite." He replied, watching her lips press against the crystal glass as she drank a mouthful of wine. He felt arousal shoot through him in response.

"Because of your mother?" she asked, surprising him again. Very few people spoke about his mother to him growing up, fearful that they'd upset his father and so Esme Cullen had become little more than a faint memory to him.

"I remember very little of her." He said simply and drained his cup of wine before refilling both of their glasses though neither of them reached for their drink when he was done. "What were your parents like?"

She visibly winced at the question. "My mother was much like Rosalie is now, except she drowned her failings in whiskey and blamed my sister and me for ruining both her marriage and her figure. My father was never around enough to notice that she had become an alcoholic any more than he noticed he had two daughters. My sister was the only solace I had growing up." She stated, her voice colder than he'd ever heard it, making her sound more like Rosalie than he was comfortable with.

He didn't protest when she stood and left the room, leaving him to cold lasagna and a pang in his chest that he didn't understand.

* * *

**A few people mentioned in reviews that they liked the fic rec so I'll keep them coming, although there may not be one every update. This time it's:**

**Ethan Church by dryler.**

_**When Bella accepts an offer to write the biography of a severely reclusive author, the old, dying man she's presented with and the young, too perfect man she meets while there convince her she's missing some very important parts of the story.**_

**This fic is one of the ones that made me fall in love with fanfiction in the first place, the sense of need throughout the beginning of the fic never fails to tug at my heart each time I've read it and I hope you all love it as much as I do.**


	13. Twelve

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**I absolutely love your responses to this fic, hearing your thoughts, praises and criticisms makes my day and inspires me to smash out chapters quicker.**

**Review for more Scarward!**

* * *

He remained at the dining table long after Isabella left, saying nothing as Charlotte and Maggie came and cleared the table, his dinner still only half eaten as he analysed and re-analysed everything she'd said.

When he'd designed his plan to get to Royce, it had been simple. But nothing had been simple since Isabella had walked into this exact room the evening before. She made him question his plans to thwart his idiot cousin and forced him to feel emotions he'd spent his entire life repressing and that made her more powerful than he'd ever let himself admit.

He hadn't met Charles Swan before the man had passed, knowing only that he'd been a very wealthy lawyer and had loudly promoted his approval for a marriage between Rosalie and Royce. Edward had heard his cousin boasting about it at an event shortly after he'd gotten his engagement ring on Rosalie's finger.

That made him angry, that the man had been so interested in having a millionaire for a son-in-law that he hadn't realised that he was leaving his daughter in the hands of a sociopath. Although his fury at Charles' negligence didn't hold a candle to the rage he felt toward Rosalie.

How could she be such a selfish woman? To sacrifice her sister to save herself from paying a debt that she had made to feed her addiction. He wondered if she'd relapsed since Isabella's departure, too selfish to worry about both her sister and her children. He wondered if she'd even called her sister since she'd left, throwing Isabella to the wolves so carelessly.

Isabella was barely twenty-one and she held far more responsibility than he would have ever imagined, her dark eyes the only windows into the burdens she carried. She was far too young to carry the duty of raising two children and get an education at the time in her life when others her age were taking full advantage of their freedom.

He thought about the way her Bambi-eyes had regarded him this morning when he'd kissed her, when she'd been unable to mask the curiosity she felt towards him. As much as she might not like him, there was no doubt in his mind that she was as affected by him as he was by her.

He made his way to the bedroom then, walking silently through the cold and dark corridors that mirrored his soul. Opening the door softly before stepping into the room, he forced himself not to look at her sleeping form before walking into the bathroom. He closed the door behind him and started stripping out of his clothes, turning on the water as hot as he could stand before stepping under the steaming spray.

He pushed his wet hair back and rested his head against the cold tile, thinking about the woman sleeping in his bed. He couldn't not think about her. In less than a day she'd invaded his mind in a way that no person before her had.

Her brown eyes captured his attention in the way that they regarded him without fear or disgust. He'd become very used to people mocking his disfigurement over the past few years, her own sister being one of the nastiest about it, she never hesitated to tell him what she thought of him, even when she was asking to borrow more and more money from him.

It was a long time before he turned the water off, towelling dry without looking in the mirror, knowing full-well the horror of his reflection. He'd spent every year of his life since he was ten years old filling every one of his bedrooms with mirrors, forcing himself to remember the horror of that day, to never forget why he'd done the things he'd done.

He pulled on a pair of clean underwear and flannel pants, knowing the fury that would be Isabella if he slept naked beside her. But there was no way he would force himself to spend another night sleeping on the springy mattress in the guestroom.

He made his way quietly back into the bedroom, watching as Isabella remained asleep as he moved to the right side of the bed, slipping into the covers beside her. She stirred beside him.

"Edward?" she asked, her voice hoarse from sleep, turning her face to watch him settle into the bed behind her through half-lidded eyes that made his cock twitch before she lowered her head and fell back to sleep.

He listened to her inhale and exhale softly over the next hour and smiled when she mumbled words he couldn't quite make out in her sleep.

Her scent overwhelmed him as he laid on his back beside her, the smell of strawberries and vanilla making him painfully aware of her close proximity, dressed in a navy silk gown that he'd asked Charlotte to buy after seeing the colour on her that morning. He liked the way her skin seemed almost luminescent against the dark colour, the way it emphasised the flush of her cheeks and the pink of her lush mouth.

He watched her in the mirror above the bed, her tiny hands tucked under her chin as she breathed steadily, her hair a cascade of chocolate against his gold duvet, imagining how it would feel wrapped around his fingers as her mouth glided over his cock.

He fell asleep to thoughts of what she'd look like when she finally gave herself to him.

* * *

**So much like my Edward, the one in this fic is a lot darker than some and I find it absolutely sexy so I hope you do too. This fic is very well known and I believe an absolute must read for every twilight fanfic lover.**

**The Blessing and the Curse by The Black Arrow.**

**_By pretending she is falling for Edward, Bella is fulfilling Esme's dying wish. But sexy, possessive Edward can read her mind. Will she ever get into his? Can Bella forget the pain of her teenage years, and can she resist his relentless seduction? _**

**You will not regret reading this fic, I promise you!**


	14. Thirteen

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**So a few days ago this fic was recommended at The Lemonade Stand which was kind of a big deal for me and I'm still completely shocked and honoured. It really means a lot that so many of you love this story and its characters. I've gotten so many reviews and follows over the past few days and it made my 19th birthday yesterday just a whole level better.**

**Thank you so much.**

* * *

Isabella woke to a warmth so enticing it almost lulled her back to sleep. She wished for a few moments to close her eyes and finish dreaming about the dark prince saving her from the hell she'd been living in.

But the morning light dulled by rain clouds reminded her that princes did not exist and that the only person who could save her was herself. She did not linger on thoughts of the green eyes shared by a certain man and her prince.

A warmth exhale on her neck told her that the delicious warmth surrounding her was Edward wrapped around her. With his hard chest pressed against her back and a hand resting over her belly, it was difficult to remember that she wasn't supposed to like him touching her.

In fact, the more time she spent around Edward Cullen, the more difficult it became to remember that she wasn't supposed to like _him._

But, god help her, he was the most fascinating man she'd ever met and the more time she spent in his company, the harder it became to deny that she was interested by him more than physically.

Slowly, so she wouldn't wake him, she rolled over in his arms to watch him.

She'd have thought that in sleep, his face would relax. It hadn't. It seemed that even in sleep he refused to drop the harsh bravado that he'd spent his entire life perfecting. After those first few minutes in his company, the shock of his scars had worn off and she wondered again where he'd gotten them and when.

Unlike the first night she'd been here, the scars now struck a pang of anger in her heart rather than fear or disgust. How could someone have done that to him? How could they have been so cruel?

She was almost angry at herself for feeling this way after only knowing him for just two nights, for letting him invade her mind. It had happened without her knowing, when he listened to her with an attentiveness no one had showed her in years and the random acts of kindness that no one but him had ever showed her.

_What are you doing, you stupid girl?_ She asked herself. If she continued to let herself fall into the arms of Edward Cullen, then she would be leaving at the end of the week without her virginity and nursing a broken heart.

As she reached her fingertips to touch the lips that had stirred something in her that no man had before. When he kissed her, she felt for the first time that she wasn't plain.

As she lifted her gaze from his lips to his eyes, she watched as they slowly opened. She nearly gasped at the blazing inferno that rested within that piercing green stare. No one had ever looked at her the way that he had. His mouth curved into an unguarded smile that took her breath away.

It was gone before she took another breath.

He turned his face away from her so quickly that it nearly gave her whiplash, though his hold on her refused to loosen as she tried to pull away.

It was in that moment that she finally understood that despite the cocky façade he was a master at, Edward was not unaffected by the appearance of his scars. Her eyes burned with the urge to cry for him, for the cruelty that he had endured each day because of the scars.

"I'm surprised you didn't run screaming when you woke up next to me." He said, the arrogant bravado once again in full effect, turning his face back to face hers, mask in place.

She rolled her eyes at him. "You can try all you want Cullen, you'll never make me scream."

He chuckled darkly at that, smirking crookedly and tightening his hold on her. "You sound so sure."

"I am sure." She said and then mentally cursed at the lack of conviction in her voice. "Let me go."

"Where's the fun in that?" he ask, moving his body so that it was hovering over hers. She wanted to yell at herself for the immediate flood of heat coursing through her veins.

"Surely there's another bedroom that you could have slept in." she muttered.

"There aren't any others with a decent mattress and a beautiful woman lying in them." He said with a cocky grin. She wished her heart hadn't stuttered when he'd called her beautiful. "What do you want, Bella?"

"I want you to let me go." She said.

"No you don't." he said simply and as much as she wanted to argue with him, she knew that he was right. "If you really wanted to let me go, you wouldn't keep looking at my mouth."

Looking away, she bit her lip. She both loved and hated that he looked at her and payed attention. She'd gone so long being all but invisible that she welcomed his attention but at times like now, she wish he'd treat her with the same disregard everyone before him had.

"Stop it." She whispered, desperately trying to hold her resolve. She wouldn't let him have her body, regardless of what her heart might want.

He leaned down and brushed a kiss across her mouth and she didn't stop him. His lips were gentle against hers, igniting a fire that became an inferno when his tongue brushed against her own.

He pulled away with a cocky smirk that she wanted to slap – or kiss – away.

She squirmed until she was sitting in front of him before shooting him with a glare that only turned his smirk into a smile. She grimaced and moved to get off of the bed and away from him.

"I just want to kiss you, Bella." He said and she stopped and turned her face around to look at his face. If he was lying she couldn't tell.

"I don't know if I should believe you." she whispers, turning around so that they are both leaning on their knees facing one another.

"I would be lying if I told you that my intentions were entirely honourable." He said, lifting a hand to lift and play with a strand of her dark hair.

Her gaze lowered from his face to his chest, the hard lines of muscle capturing her attention more than any Calvin Klein model ever had. She blushed when he noticed her staring.

"Just a kiss." He repeated and she bit her lip, considering.

"If I kiss you, will you let me go?" she asked, hope rising in her chest.

"From this bed, yes, from our agreement, no."

She frowned as he continued to play with her hair, seeming fascinated by the locks that were usually confined to a braid before moving across the bed enough that their knees touched. "Fine. Kiss me."

"That's not the deal love, _you_ agreed to kiss _me_." He said, grinning at his small victory.

_Stupid girl, stupid, stupid girl_. She chanted over and over as she blushed a violent shade of pink. The thing was that she _wanted_ to kiss him, she wanted to feel his lips beneath hers and his hands over her body but the problem with that was that she was uncertain that she could separate her heart and her mind.

"Just kiss me Bella." He spoke as if nothing would come of this kiss. She knew differently.

She inhaled deeply, closing her eyes for a moment as she weighed the consequences of kissing Edward Cullen. As she exhaled, she opened them, determination glowing in her chocolate irises. "Okay."

* * *

**Today's fic recommendation is a one shot but it's completely delicious and wonderful and you must read it!**

**The Prettiest Regret by TheFicChick.**

**_He looks like summer. He looks like freedom. He looks like the best kind of bad idea._**

**It's 6,264 words of awesome.**


	15. Fourteen

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**I feel the need to repeat that I do own nothing, the characters belong to Stephenie Meyer and the plot is borrowed from a historical romance novel called Seven Nights in a Rogue's Bed by Anna Campbell. If you don't want spoilers, please do not read it although it's pretty amazing!**

**The reviews from the last chapter were amazing! I cannot believe the response I am getting, it's completely humbling and overwhelming.**

**I love you all and I will be back tomorrow.**

* * *

Despite her surrender, she didn't move to kiss him right away, choosing instead to lift a hand to the bare chest she'd admired earlier. He let out a shaky breath as she traced her fingers over the hard planes of muscle, the curiosity and awe on her face making his cock twitch through his pants.

"I've never touched a man before." She said quietly and he almost missed it over the sound of his heartbeat pounding in his ears as her fingertips traced over one of his nipples, eliciting a sharp inhale that made the corners of her mouth lift.

They remained silent as she continued her journey across his chest, enjoying the feel of his muscles contracting beneath her touch. She'd never touched the bare chest of a man before, her clumsy make out sessions as a teen not preparing her for the experience of Edward Cullen.

Her fascination only grew the more she touched his skin, finding that she liked the feel of his body beneath her hands, thoughts that she knew would get her into trouble later on.

She shuffled closer and moved in to leave a trail of soft kisses over the line of his shoulder and he moved his hands to rest firmly on her hips. It took almost everything in him not to pull her closer.

When she reached his jaw, he licked his lips in anticipation and flexed his grip on her hips, making her smile as she gently kissed her way to the corner of his mouth before lowering her lips to his.

Like before, his lips were soft under her own, but unlike then, this time he remained unmoving beneath her gentle kisses, refusing to take control of the kiss like he had before.

Gently, she nipped at his lower lip with her teeth, sucking it into her mouth. She moved her hands into his hair and tugged gently.

"Stop it." She said before tugging harder and lowering her mouth to his again. She flicked her tongue across his bottom lip, feeling victorious when he opens his mouth in response.

* * *

As he opened his mouth to receive her kiss, she fractured the wall he'd built around his heart. She moaned as he moved his hands to the small of her back to pull her into his chest as she kissed him with all of the passion he'd made her feel in the past two nights.

Within a moment he had rolled them so she was beneath him, her hands running up and down his chest as their tongues battled for dominance. He fought the urge to press his erection into the spot he desperately wanted to be.

He nipped at her lip before moving his lips to her neck, leaving hot open mouthed kisses before sucking on her neck with the singular goal of leaving his mark on her porcelain skin.

He moved his hand to the exposed skin of her thigh where her the midnight blue nightgown had ridden up. He kissed her harder as he moved his hand upwards, bruising her mouth and enticing another moan from her.

When his hand met the soft, damp cotton of her panties she stiffened beneath him and pushed his hand away. "_Don't._"

He lifted his head so that they could look at one another, wishing he had more time to memorise the way she looked in this moment, with her cheeks flushed and lips swollen.

"I could make you feel good Bella." He said, his voice hoarse and his pupils large as he stared at her mouth with a hunger she wished she wasn't feeling herself. "All you have to do is say yes." _Please say yes._

"I can't." she whispered, turning her face away from hers, knowing she would give in if she kept looking at the hunger on his face. "I can't." she repeated, trying to convince herself more than convince him.

A moment later, when she moved to get out from under him he let her go, ignoring the pang in his chest as he watched her walk away from him.

* * *

Edward carefully avoided her over the next few hours and for that she was thankful. She had been completely overwhelmed by their kiss earlier and when he'd touched her, she'd pushed him away not because she hadn't wanted him to touch her, but because she _had _and that fact scared her more than anything.

She'd rushed into the bathroom after moving out from underneath him, looking at her reflection in the mirror as she fought to recognise the wide eyed and blushing girl staring back at her with swollen lips and a strawberry mark from where he'd sucked at her neck. She had patches of red skin from where his stubble had grazed her.

She'd never felt so confused.

Or so aroused.

It was becoming harder and harder to separate her growing feelings from the lust she felt for him and she feared giving him her body would irreversibly change everything and she had come too far to stop her plans from falling apart now.

She just needed to wait a few months and she could save her sister.

She just needed to wait a little longer and then she could use the information she'd found in Edward Senior's belongings to ruin Royce.

Because when her brother in law had told her to sort through his grandfather's belongings, he'd had no idea that Isabella would find proof of Edward Senior's illegal cover up of Carlisle Cullen's marriage to Esme Platt.

Royce had unknowingly handed her the information she needed to beat him, giving Edward control over the company that was his father's legacy.

When she finally released the information, Royce's life would be ruined.

And Edward - he would hate her for keeping the information from him.

* * *

**Fic Rec:**

**One of my favourite fics of all time, this Edward completely captured my heart.**

**Air by Rochelle Allison. (All of her fics are worth reading, they are completely captivating.)**

**_Edward and Bella meet at a summer barbeque. A story about - what else - falling for someone, hard._**


	16. Fifteen

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**Thank you to everyone who, reviewed, followed and favourited.**

**I will see you again tomorrow.**

* * *

She was in the library when he found her, her head buried in Wuthering Heights for the thousandth time, losing herself in Heathcliff's passion as thoroughly as she had the first time she'd read it.

"That book is shit." He said, leaning against the bookshelf near her chair, smiling as she shrieked in surprise and dropped her book.

Clutching her frantically beating heart, she looked up at him with wide eyes, noticing right away the distance in his eyes as he looked at her with none of the heat he'd displayed hours earlier. He stood with his arms crossed as he leaned near her, the grey t-shirt clinging to the muscles she'd worshipped with her hands.

"You scared me." She whispered, her voice cracking as her cheeks reddened when she thought about the passion she'd felt this morning in his arms.

"Sorry." He said, not meaning it at all.

"My book isn't shit." She said after clearing her throat, remembering his opening sentence.

He rolled his eyes and scoffed at her words. "It's a horrible story. The characters are both horrible and in the end do nothing but ruin each other's lives, I'm not even sure why people call it romance." He states watching her clutch the book to her chest.

"It's my favourite book." She admits quietly, turning her head away from him.

_"__Why?"_ he asks, completely shocked by her blushing admission.

"Because it's what I want."

"You want someone to destroy you?" he asks, the question hitting too close to home.

"I want a love that consumes me. I don't want to finally fall in love with my best friend or settle for some guy who makes a decent wage. I want someone who needs me like air, who couldn't be in the same room as me and not touch me because they'd go crazy otherwise. I want to love and be loved so completely by someone that we ache from it."

Her words break holes through the walls that she'd already fractured and it takes everything he has not to bolt from the room, to put as much space between him and this woman before she shatters his walls completely. In less than three days she had broken through more of his façade than all but his parents had. In less than three days, she was planting seeds of something in his chest that scared him more than anything ever had.

"I thought you said you were never getting married." His voice doesn't crack from the emotions he feels looking at her and he uses every bit of willpower he has left to keep his indifferent mask in place.

"I might not believe in marriage Edward, but I do believe in love." Her mouth turns up at the corners as she says this.

He wants to argue with her, to shout at her that love is a myth and that she was stupid for thinking otherwise but he knows he can't because he's seen love. He saw it every day in his parent's eyes as they looked at one another and at him before his mother's death. And then he watched his father experience the pain of losing it afterwards.

"You don't agree?" she asked, watching his far off look as he thought about her words.

"I believe that love exists, I just don't trust that it's all it's cracked up to be. I watched the way my father loved my mother so irrevocably that when she died, so did most of him. I would never want to give someone the power to do that to me."

Her heart ached for him as he spoke to her, explaining the shadow of a man Carlisle Cullen had become after the death of his wife, how he travelled all around the world, dragging his son along to escape her memory, to escape the pain. Edward told her that while his father had loved him, he hadn't ever recovered from the loss of his wife and hadn't minded at all when the cancer had finally claimed his life and reunited them.

Neither of them said anything after he finished talking and turned his face away from her to leave his scarred cheek facing her and his expression hidden as he took a sudden interest in the books he had been leaning against.

She watched him as he reached to pick a leather bound book from a high shelf, his shirt lifting up enough so that she was able to catch sight of the hard muscle his shirt had been hiding.

"You're looking at me." He said after a few minutes of silently flicking through pages, completely aware of her gaze on him. There was no way that he couldn't be aware of her. No matter how hard he tried.

"I'm trying to figure you out." She admitted, watching his eyes scan the page of the book he held. He looked up then, an unreadable expression on his face.

"Don't." he said bluntly and a little harshly, making her frown and fidget in her chair. She didn't want him to be harsh with her or look at her blankly, she wanted the Edward that she'd seen this morning in bed with her, the one who'd smiled at her when he'd woken.

"Why?" she demanded, standing up, dropping her book to where she'd been sitting and closing the space between them so that his back was pressed against the shelves and her torso nearly touched his.

"Because I'm not a good guy Isabella, I'm not some puzzle to figure out or some broken toy to fix." He said, looking down at her blazing eyes with a coldness that frightened her.

"Not a good guy? What does that even mean?"

"I loaned your sister thousands of dollars to buy drugs and then practically blackmailed her into coming here so I could fuck her and send her back to Royce, even though I suspected that he beats her. You are only here because of that, because I was going to use her to get to her husband and then discard her like she was nothing." His words hit home and her eyes filled with tears as he spoke to her so emotionlessly that she shivered. You came here knowing I would do the same to you, that I would fuck you over and over and then throw you away like you were nothing."

She stepped away from him then, turning to wipe a tear away before he could see it and walked over to the window where rain poured steadily down the glass.

"After these past couple of days, can you say that it's still the same?" she asked, her voice shaky and her heart sore. "Can you say that I'm nothing?" she asked in a lower voice that he wouldn't be able to hear.

She turned to listen to his response but was met with an empty room.

* * *

**Fic Rec:**

**Ride by kris salvador.**

**Bella wanted to fulfill a fantasy - to be groped inside a crowded train. She gets her wish and more, when a sex-starved ex-convict decides she's fair game.**

**I can't tell you why to read this without typing something really crude...but yeah you're gonna need a wet floor sign. #diditanyway**


	17. Sixteen

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**I'm so sorry I didn't update yesterday but real life and uni got in the way.**

**Will be back in two days!**

* * *

For the first time in his life, Edward Cullen ran. He fled from the library as if his life depended on it and in a way, it had. His life had been carefully controlled after the trauma he'd received as a child, each hour of his day carefully planned so that he was never caught as unawares as he had the day his face had been ruined.

And Isabella Swan had blown it all to hell in three days.

He'd never known someone like her, someone so completely selfless or kind.

He'd never known anyone who looked at him the way she had either.

She looked at him with a wonder and interest no woman before her had ever showed. It made him wonder what it would be like when she was gone and he would be back to sleeping with women who looked at him with lust and thinly veiled disgust.

He wondered if he could go back at all.

_God_, the way she'd sounded when she'd spoken about love. He'd never wanted her more in that moment, to claim her mouth, her body and her heart.

It was why he'd run.

He wasn't the kind of man who could fall in love, not the kind of man a woman like she deserved.

She turned him completely inside out, the struggle to remain cold to her was one he'd started losing before he'd fled, his body completely too aware of her presence. He'd wanted nothing more than to just bury his face and breathe her in like he had the night before, lying in darkness, the scent of her hair making him harder than he'd ever been before.

He wasn't sure he'd ever be able to smell strawberries again and not get hard thinking about the way she'd looked beneath him, the way she'd felt against him.

He'd retreated to the ballroom, needing space to think without getting soaked by the downpour outside. The tall ceilings and large columns did nothing to free his mind from the web of Isabella. The cold air gave him no relief from thoughts of her Bambi-eyes.

It also didn't help that his body was so aware of her presence that he could _feel_ her walking into the room behind her. Electricity hummed in the air, the hairs on his forearms lifting, as though moving towards her.

What was she doing to him?

"Edward." She said softly, her gentle voice making his name sound sweeter than he'd ever heard. He wondered if it would sound the same when she moaned it.

"Bella." He replied before turning around to face her, wishing that he was unaffected by her troubled frown as she looked up at him. "What can I do for you?"

"Why did you leave earlier?" she asked, a little cross forming between her brows.

He smiled at her crookedly and charmingly. "I had some business to attend to."

"Like?" she enquired, challenging him.

"After this morning, I'm finding that certain body parts are demanding more attention."

He smirked.

She seethed.

"Fine. Be an asshole. I really don't care." _Lie_, she told herself before turning on her heel and intending to storm out on him.

He caught her arm before she could walk away. She turned to face him, finding that the façade was falling again. She also found that she wanted more time with this Edward than she did without him. It frightened her.

"What do you want Edward?"

_You_.

"Dance with me."

"What?" her eyes are wide with confusion and shock.

"Dance with me." He demanded again, his eyes soft for the first time since their encounter this morning.

* * *

He didn't give her any time to say no before he had her in his arms. She was glad, worried that her head might have won the battle over her heart because as soon as she breathed in his scent, she knew she'd have regretted walking away.

"I don't understand you." she whispered as he pulled one of her hands to rest his shoulder and grabbed the other with his before pulling her body so close to his that she could feel the body heat radiating from him.

She hated that she liked it.

"I don't think you should try to." He told her honestly, breathing in the scent of her skin as he skimmed his nose across her shoulder.

"Why?" she asked, the need to know more about him, to know everything about him rising in her.

"I'm not a good guy Bella." He told her again.

"Nobody's perfect Edward." She responded, smirking when he huffed in annoyance.

They remained silent as he moved them around the room and for the first time in her life she was thankful that her sister had forced dancing lessons upon her prior to her wedding with Royce.

"I don't know what to say to you." he said so quietly she almost missed it. She looks up at him then, watching his face, pleading for more. "I hadn't planned for you. Your sister and the women like her, they're easy. If any of them are interested it's to piss off their daddy's or their boyfriends. They're shallow and nasty and you…you're not."

Her heart thumps erratically as she processes his words, warmth rushing through her.

"What am I then?" she asks, trying to hide the hope in her voice.

"You're-"

"I'm sorry Mr Cullen, but Emmett McCarty is here to see you and he's looking pretty impatient." The interruption from Charlotte nearly breaks her heart as he pulls away from her, his expression changing immediately to one she's begun to loathe.

"Thanks Charlotte, tell him to meet me in the library." He tells her and she turns and walks away as quickly as she came, not understanding that she's just ruined all progress for them. He turns back to face her, regret flashing in his eyes for just a moment before it's gone again. "Go up to the bedroom and don't come out until I come and get you."

"Why?"

He smiles a little and it's almost sad. "You don't want anyone to know you're here with me, right?"

She looks away, suddenly remembering everything that's on the line with her being here.

"Right." She says softly, not believing it for a second.

* * *

**Fic Rec:**

**Copy Room by Edward's Eternal. Can never get enough of these fics and she reviewed the last chapter and made me smile like a girl after her first date so you need to be as excited about her as I am!**

_**Sometimes flippant words are really the truth spoken out loud. What happens when someone overhears you and decides to give you what you secretly want but never knew?**_


	18. Seventeen

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**A few people have inquired about the length of this story and it's not halfway through yet. Also people have asked about my posting schedule - I don't have one but I update at least twice a week, more now that I'm back at uni and have a regular routine again so the fic wont take ages to complete.**

* * *

He finds Emmett in the library, pacing a hole into the hardwood floor. It wasn't an unusual sight, Emmett had rarely liked to stand still, even when they were children. His boundless energy and happy demeanor had frightened Edward at first, the only contact he had with other children before he went to school was Royce and his sister Alice. And while Alice liked to play with him, Royce had only ever been mean to the both of them, pushing them closer together growing up. He hadn't spoken to his sister since she'd left to work for Edward, right after their grandfather's funeral.

He had always been jealous of Edward's achievements, that people liked him more, even when they had been growing up. The only thing Royce had ever accomplished that Edward hadn't had been the love of their grandfather. He'd coddled Royce while shunning Edward and ignoring Alice.

They hadn't minded.

"Cullen!" Emmett says, stopping his pacing and turning towards his old friend. Emmett was one of only three people Edward had ever been trusted outside of his father, he and Jasper had been there for him when no one else had.

Edward walks over and they do the hug-back-slap thing that they'd done since they were teenagers. "What brings you all of the way out here?" he asks.

Emmett grimaces. "It's Rose."

"_Rose?_"

"Rosalie." Emmett raises his hands before Edward can even open his mouth to form the angry words they both know are running through his head. "You asked me to make sure she stayed clean. I'm where she is almost all of the time and…we talk."

His face falls when he says this, his eyes sadder than Edward thinks he's ever seen his friend and he almost regrets asking Emmett to watch over her.

"She told me she made her sister take her place. She's scared. God, Edward she thinks you're a complete monster and that you've got her sister tied up in some rape dungeon doing some fifty shades of grey kind of shit. I don't know what to say to her, she isn't taking drugs but she's going through withdrawal and it's getting harder for her to hide it from Royce. She needs to be in a treatment facility, not in reach of his fist." With the last sentence out of his mouth, Emmett's expression tells him everything he needs to know about why he's so concerned over Rosalie and it makes his stomach churn.

"She's his wife, Emmett." Edward says not unkindly. "We can't do anything about it yet but I'm working on it. I'd suspected he abused her but I hadn't known anything for sure until Bella confirmed it."

"_Bella?"_ Emmett's tone mimics Edward's from earlier and he clenches his fists at the slip up. God, what was this woman doing to him?

"Rosalie's sister." Edward says, his voice cold. "She's the one taking care of the kids when her sister is high."

Emmett's expression hardens and his fists clench. "You don't know her like I do. She's called them every day and they're all she talks about."

"What did she say to you the first time she spoke to you Em?"

He looks confused. "I can't really remember, we talked about stupid stuff, small talk."

"When I first met Rosalie King she spat in my face. She didn't even know me and she spit on me. When I first met her sister she was so scared of me that she couldn't stop shaking. I will probably never have a relationship with my nephews because they're heard their entire lives about the other Cullen, the bastard with the fucked up face." Edward's voice is void of all emotion and Emmett collapses into a chair, running his hands over his face.

"I don't know what to do. It's like she's two completely different people." Emmett's voice is full of the despair that Edward has spent his entire life avoiding, the despair he was afraid to feel if he opened up to Isabella and she left. "When she's with them, it's like she's a Muppet, she's prim and proper and fuck, she's such a _bitch_. But when she's with me, she wears stained t-shirts and her eyes light up and she's everything I ever wanted."

"But she isn't yours Em." His voice is soft and his heart aches for his friend. He'd never thought this would happen when he asked Emmett to make sure Rosalie stayed clean. He'd always slept around, far more than Edward had and more than Jasper before he'd met Alice so he hadn't for a second anticipated that Emmett would fall for her. And even more than that, he hadn't anticipated that Rosalie would be someone _worth _falling for.

"I know that Edward but fuck, I want her to be."

* * *

She knew she shouldn't be eavesdropping on their conversation, but her need to know more about Edward had overwritten the urge the hide in the bedroom. Not that she needed to, from what Emmett McCarty had said, he knew that she was here.

She'd met Emmett once before, at one of the two galas she'd ever attended. He'd taken one look at her miserable expression and had handed her a glass of champagne, knowing that she was underage. "You'll need it." He'd said with wide blue eyes and a flash of dimples. She never drank from the glass, but it gave her comfort that not everyone at the event had been an asshole.

"What am I going to do?" Emmett asked Edward, his voice pleading. From her hiding place on the second story of the library she could hear everything clearly but she didn't dare give away her hiding place.

"I don't know Em. I'm getting so close but it's getting harder and harder to watch Royce destroy everything my father ever did for that company. He's on the verge of bankruptcy and I think he's hoping on Isabella's trust fund but I doubt he'd be able to gain access without her consent but I wouldn't put it past him to go to great lengths to get it." The hard edge in his voice runs up her spine and makes her shiver. She wished she could see his face. It didn't escape her notice that he'd called her Isabella this time.

"How much is it?"

"Two million. It wouldn't last long in his hands but he's desperate. He keeps borrowing money and pretty soon they're going to realise that he's never going to be able to pay it back." She frown. How could he know how much money it was? How much about her _did_ he know?

"We have to do something Edward, neither of them can keep staying in that house. You know he wouldn't hesitate to hurt Isabella as well and from what her sister has told me, she'd never leave the kids alone with their father, hell she hadn't even let the kids be alone with Rose after she'd told her everything. She's too kind to abandon them. From what her sister has told me, she's too kind – period."

She wants to punch her sister for talking to Emmett McCarty about things that weren't his business and she wanted to punch Emmett more for relaying them to Edward.

"I know." Edward's words are an exhale, an admission that makes her heart soar.

"You do?" there's skepticism in Emmett's voice.

"Yeah, yeah I do."

* * *

**Fic Rec:**

**Alaska by Anton M.**

**_For two years, Bella's had a cotton candy romance going on with her taciturn best friend. In her head. So after catching bits and pieces of Edward's unusual upbringing, Bella pays a visit to Alaska._**

**It's updated a few times a week and I'm absolutely in love with it, it's not like any other fic I've ever read and it's recently hit 1100 reviews but needs more so give it some love.**


	19. Eighteen

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**Thank you for all of the reviews! Your thoughts on Emmett and Rosalie made me insanely happy, whether you loved or hated it. **

**Thank you to everyone who has followed, favourited and reviewed.**

* * *

"I don't know what to do Edward, she can't leave him, she won't risk him getting custody over the kids and she won't go to the police about him beating her. He broke one of her ribs yesterday because he lost another investor. If he loses Cullen Industries, I know he'll kill her and I cannot let that happen Edward, I know you hate her, you have every reason to, but she doesn't deserve to die."

Emmett's right and Edward knows it, but it doesn't make the sting lesson or ease the betrayal he feels knowing one of his only friends has fallen in love with a woman who had done nothing but make his life miserable.

He pulls at his hair and sighs. "Here's what we're going to do."

* * *

She escaped to the bedroom after Edward had said she was kind, her heart beating wildly as she tiptoed from the library.

She had no idea what she was doing, thinking or feeling.

No one had ever sent her quite into the tailspin Edward Cullen had for the past two days.

Yet no one had ever made her feel the way that he did.

For the first time in her life she felt desirable. When he looked at her, it was hard for her to remember that she was supposed to hate him and when he touched her…

When he touched her, it became difficult to remember that she was only here to settle a debt.

She was here to save her sister.

Her sister who Isabella wasn't even sure she knew anymore. She hoped Emmett would help her, would guide her into turning Royce in so that they could live in peace. So that she could hand Edward the documents that would change his life.

She wanted to do it now, wanted to watch his face light up when he realised he could ruin Royce once and for all.

But she needed to make sure that she, her sister and nephews would be safe first, both physically and financially. As much as her heart told her to trust Edward, she knew that she couldn't risk handing him the documents before she could keep her family safe, she couldn't trust Edward to help them after the way her sister had treated him.

She almost hated Rosalie for that, for being the shallow and cruel woman their mother had been. It terrified her that her once fairy-tale believing sister could become Renee.

_A few more months_, she told herself, _a few more months and you can save her._

* * *

Edward didn't feel any better after showing Emmett out to his car and watching him drive away.

Everything about today had completely messed with his head.

Between his need for Isabella and the head fuck that was one of his best friends falling for one of the women he hated most in the world, he really needed a drink.

* * *

She frowned unhappily when Charlotte had come into the bedroom to tell her that dinner was ready.

He'd had never come to get her like he said he would. She'd waited in the bedroom for hours, her doubts about Edward growing with every glance at the mirrors reflecting her sad eyes back at her.

God she was stupid, so_ so_ stupid.

How could she have believed that he had begun wanting her for any other reason to get back at her sister and Royce? He thought she was kind, but how was that going to help her after their week together ended? How was that going to stop him from going after Royce until he was ruined? How was that going to help her save her sister when he took his anger out on Rosalie with his fists?

She made her way to the dining room, her anger rising with each step down the staircase, fully intending to scream at him for forgetting about her, for ruining the few wonderful moments they'd had in the ball room.

Her plan was cut short when she noticed only one place setting at the huge dining table.

"Where is he?" she asked Charlotte when the woman brought her dinner into the room.

Charlotte placed the steaming plate of steak in front of her before she spoke. "Mr Cullen has some business to attend to this evening, he's asked that you enjoy your meal."

She was gone before Isabella could say anything else.

* * *

She'd barely touched her dinner before retiring to the bedroom, the empty room lit only by the fire Charlotte or someone else had lit while she'd pushed her food around on her plate.

Anger gave way to a sinking feeling in her stomach as she paced the length of the room before running a bath using the new bottle of her favourite body wash that had appeared in the bathroom that morning.

But not even the comforting smell of strawberries was enough to relax her.

Not when he was on her mind.

She gave up on the bath after washing her hair, taking the time to blow dry her hair before pulling on the midnight blue nightgown she'd worn the night before. Despite her anger at him taking her clothes, she enjoyed the way the silk felt as it slid along her breasts and thighs. The dark silk made her feel sexier than any other piece of clothing she'd ever owned had.

She knew he'd like it as well. She'd noticed his eyes darken when he'd taken in the dark silk against her skin when they'd kissed this morning.

She walked over to the bedroom door, turning the lock in an attempt to reclaim some of her sanity. He could sleep in the spare room with the crappy mattress for all she cared.

She sighed as she climbed onto the gold duvet, the warmth from the fire providing enough heat for her to not need the covers. This morning had felt like it'd been a lifetime ago and she ran the memories of his kiss over and over in her said so that she'd remember them as clearly as she did now.

She fell asleep thinking about the way he'd smiled at her when she'd first woken up.

* * *

**Fic Rec:**

**El Camino by IReen H. (my favourite one-shot ever)**

_**He drove a rundown 1973 El Camino, smoked like a chimney - and the few words he spoke were seldom to me.**_


	20. Nineteen

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**Thank you too you all.**

**All mistakes are my own.**

* * *

It was the lock on the bedroom door being picked that woke her up. She sat up on the bed, having fell asleep without the covers on and shivered, the fire burning low.

She stood up from the bed as the now unlocked door opened, crossing her arms and glaring as Edward entered the room with a quirked brow and a smirk that pissed her off almost as much as it turned her on.

He ignored her narrowed eyes as he made his way over to the bed, discarding his shoes and pulling his shirt over his head, baring his disgustingly perfect chest to her. "What do you think you're doing?" she asked as he unbuttoned his jeans and let them fall to the floor.

She looked away then, determined not to let the appearance of his perfectly toned body sway her from her anger.

"I'm going to bed." He said and the smile in his voice made her head turn and face him as he lifted the duvet to climb into the bed.

"Not here you're not." She said, pushing the duvet out of his hands and shoving him away from the bed.

His smirk fell as he moved closer to her, walking forwards and backing her against the wall. "You didn't seem to mind sharing the bed with me last night."

She inhaled deeply as she looked into his eyes, his irises the darkest shade of jade she'd ever seen. "I did." She said, looking away.

"Liar." He replied, tucking a finger under his chin and turning her head back to face his.

"I'm not lying. Either you sleep in the spare room or I will." She said, sounding a hell of a lot more confident than she felt.

"Shhh…" he said softly, moving his finger from under her chin to stroke her cheek. Her heart pounded in her chest as she watched him lick his lips a second before his mouth was on hers.

* * *

His kiss was anything but gentle and she didn't hesitate before kissing him back, meeting his passion with her own as his tongue dominated her mouth and one of his hands twisted in her hair, pulling her closer.

"I love your hair." He whispered softly against her lips as he moved his mouth down to lay wet, open-mouthed kissed on her neck that made her moan. "I love your skin, you have the softest, sweetest skin I've ever tasted." his tongue and teeth served to distract her as he moved his other hand down her silk encased thigh and pushed the fabric up before hitching her leg around his waist.

It was his turn to moan when she wrapped both legs around his waist, allowing him to pull her up so that her chest was eye level with his face. She didn't protest when he pulled down the strap of her night gown to reveal one of her breasts, the perfect rose coloured bud beckoning him to wrap his mouth around it.

So he did.

_"__Edward."_ His name was low and soft as it fell from her lips and he reveled in it, was drowning in it, her scent, the sounds she was making and the feel of her nails as her hands grasped at his back, pulling him closer.

He moved them then, so that her back was on the bed beneath him. He rolled his hips against her once, both of them groaning at the contact before he traced his fingertips over the soft skin of her thigh and higher until he reached the wet lace covering the place he desperately wanted to be.

She didn't stop him when he gently tugged the lace aside and slipped a finger into her wet sheath. She was tighter than he ever expected and they both groaned as he thrust gently in and out of her slick heat before adding another finger while claiming her mouth with her own, swallowing every moan and whimper as it fell out of her mouth.

She cried out his name as he moved his thumb to circle her clit while he continued to thrust his fingers in and out of her, enjoying her sounds as she tensed against him a second before heat gushed over his fingers and her muscles contracted around them.

He pulled back from her mouth to watch as she came for him, his heart clenching at how stunning she looked coming undone for him and he knew in this moment that he'd never forget the pink flush of her skin or the way she'd bitten her lip to keep from screaming.

"You're so beautiful." He whispered before he could stop himself, knowing it was the truest thing he'd ever said.

* * *

Her eyes widened a second before she stiffened beneath him, pushing him away with shaking hands before sitting up and pulling her knees to her chest.

"Bella?" he asked as her body started shaking, her eyes filling with tears.

"I can't believe that I just let you do that." She whispered, her voice filled with a disgust that cut him like a knife.

He pulled back abruptly and she moved with shaking limbs to get off of the bed. "That was so stupid." She whispered mostly to herself as she pulled her nightgown back into place.

"Bella." He said again, his voice urgent as he tried to reach for her, only to have her push his hands away.

"I made it so easy didn't I? All you had to do was kiss me and I turned into every other woman who's so eager to open her legs for you." The blank look in her eyes shattered him as she seemed to stare straight through him, looking every bit the innocent girl she did on the first night she'd arrived.

But she wasn't now.

And she needed to get away from him.

Without stopping to think, she turned and ran.

* * *

"Bella!" she heard him call as she ran blindly through the unlit corridors, ignoring the pain from the cold tile beneath her feet while she made her way to the front door and threw it open.

She was soaked through to the bone before she even stepped outside, the wind pushing the rain in all directions as she stumbled through the doorway, her body shaking with sobs. God she was so stupid to think that she could resist him, to think that she could be more than the means to an end to him.

He'd told her when she arrived that he would have her, that she'd want him and that she'd give in and she had. She'd let him touch her where no other had and she'd wanted it, wanted to give herself to him but as soon as he'd spoken, he'd pulled her back in to the reality.

And the reality was that she was here because her sister wasn't. If she hadn't taken Rosalie's place it would have been her sister that he'd be kissing, that he'd be touching and all because he wanted to hurt Royce.

She hadn't been disgusted that she'd let him touch her, she'd been disgusted that she'd made it so easy for him. She hadn't even put up a fight.

"Bella!" his voice sounded through the rain and she sobbed harder and kept running, trying to put as much distance between her and this man who had invaded her heart in a way that no one before had.

She stopped running as soon as his arms wrapped around her, keeping her from falling apart.

Neither of them said anything as he carried her shivering body back into the manor.

* * *

**Fic Rec:**

**When Will I Know by deb24061  
**

_**You don't get over Edward Cullen. Even when he was never really yours. A story about wanting, needing and, eventually, knowing.**_

**Also, I've been trying to track down and favourite all of the fics I read before I started using my account, do any of you know the fic where Bella moves to a seaside town, I think she works as a bartender or something and meets Edward who works on a boat and at some point he goes missing at sea?**

**Pretty vague I know and I'm sorry! **


	21. Twenty

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**Thank you to everyone who helped me find the fic I was after, ****Constant Bearing, Decreasing range by beegirl13 and it's today's fic rec because Fisherward.**

**See you again soon!**

* * *

He carried her up through the house, holding her close to his chest, her sobbing gave way to shivers that violently shook her entire body as his heart beat pounded loudly against her cheek.

When he pushed them back through the bedroom door he sat her down on the chair by the window, whispering for her to stay there before he moved across the room to add logs to the low burning fire before stoking it until it was once again blazing.

She watched silently as he pulled the mattress and then the duvet from the bed frame and moved it in front of the fire, ignoring the goose bumps covering his entire body before he scooped her up again and lowered her to the makeshift bed on the floor before leaving the room.

She shivered as she lifted her hands to the heat radiating from the fire, not looking up when she hears him enter again.

"Bella," he says, more softly than she's ever heard him speak and she turns her head to the side to find a towel in one of his hands and her white nightgown in the other. "Here."

His eyes are sadder than she's ever seen and it makes her heart hurt that she's done this to them, made them both hurt like this. Her hands shake as she takes them both from him and it makes it hard for her to stand up to remove the wet silk from her skin. After the third failed attempt Edward steps forward. "Let me help."

Her eyes widen and she steps back. "Not like that Bella, I won't take my eyes off of yours, I promise. I wont touch you." His words are sincere and she nods, their gazes only breaking as the wet gown comes over her head and breaks their eye contact and again when the dry one comes back on. As promised, his skin doesn't touch hers once.

When he moves into the bathroom she lowers herself back to the mattress, reveling in the familiar softness of her nightgown and the comfort its brings her. She hears the shower run for a few minutes before it stops and a few moments pass before he comes back out wearing flannel pajama pants and a black t-shirt dotted with dark spots from his wet hair.

They say nothing when he moves to sit behind her on the bed, lifting the towel to her hair to pat it dry. Her shoulders are tense when he shows her the hairbrush he found in the bathroom but she nods and he begins working through the snarls from her wet hair, the tension in her body lessening with each knot he untangles.

* * *

The only sounds in the room came from the crackle of the fire and the rain pounding against the windows. Her breathing was low and steady and Edward knew that the steady brushing of her hair was making her drowsy and he prayed that she'd be too tired to yell at him, to wake up from her daze and hurl insults at him.

Her hair was all but dry when he finally put the brush down and he hadn't been able to resist the urge to wind his arms around her from behind, his heart skipping a beat as she fell back into his chest with a deep exhale, her hands resting over his arms, her fingertips tracing patterns he couldn't identify.

They stayed like that for what felt like an eternity, neither of them wanting it to end. Edward was the first to pull away, unwrapping his arms from hers and moving her body onto the bed.

He hovers over her, one arm either side of her and she smiles sadly and sleepily before raising her hand to his scarred cheek, ignoring his small wince.

The look in his eyes makes a tear fall from the corner of her eye and he lowers his lips to hers. The kiss is gentle and sweet and is over almost as quickly as it began, a frown on her lips when he pulls away, sweeping his thumb over her cheek almost reverently before he pulls away completely.

"Edward?" she asks, her voice soft as she watches him move to add a few more logs to the fire before he stands and makes his way over to the bedroom door, turning back to face her for a few moments. He smiles a little, but his eyes are weary as he looks back at her.

"Sweet dreams, Bella," he tells her before leaving the room, closing the door behind him.

It's a long time before she falls asleep, wondering why his sad smile felt like something else.

* * *

The sound of knocking pulls her from her dreams of a green eyed prince and she sits up, remembering her makeshift bed on the floor as Charlotte opens the bedroom door and enters, not batting an eyelash at the mattress on the floor.

The woman walks over to her slowly and hands her a thick envelope and she frowns before opening it, pulling out one hand written letter and another typed. She opens the one with the handwriting first, her name scrawled in an imperfect cursive that makes her heart race because she knows it's from Edward.

_Isabella,_

_Enclosed is a letter affirming your sister's debt void._

_Thank you for honouring the deal, even if it wasn't yours to honour to begin with._

_You're unlike anyone I've ever known and it was privilege to have met you, regardless of the circumstances._

_Edward Cullen._

When she lifts her head, she recognizes the bag in her hand as hers and her frown deepens as she looks up at the woman, her heart pounding in her ears. Charlotte gives her a sad smile before she starts speaking.

"Mr Cullen's asked me to drive you back to Seattle."

Her eyes widened almost comically as she put the pieces together and she looked back down at the letters in her hand, her heart breaking when she realised that by giving her these, he'd ended their deal.

He was letting her go.

It had been the goal to begin with, to get through the week as quickly and painlessly as possible.

So why did her heart hurt so much?


	22. Twenty One

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**I love you all so freaking much. Your response to the last chapter nearly had me in tears. **

**_Thank you._**

* * *

For the first time in his adult life, the sound of his Aston Martin purring as he accelerated did nothing to ease the chaos in his head and heart as he put miles between himself and Isabella Swan.

He needed to get away.

He couldn't be at Masen Hall right now.

He couldn't watch her leave.

Three nights. That's all it had taken her to get under his skin and weasel her way into the heart that he had previously believed to be impenetrable.

And he had liked it that way.

Until her.

Until Bella.

God, he didn't want her to go and that was what scared him the most.

An image of her bambi-eyes smiling at him flashed through his mind and he pushed harder on the accelerator.

* * *

She didn't know what the hell he was thinking by assuming that she'd just leave.

There was no way in hell that she would leave without talking to him first, to confront him about last night and the half-assed letter he'd left her with this morning.

He couldn't spend three nights with her, change her the way he had and then just leave her a note expecting that she'd just leave.

And she'd told Charlotte just that.

The woman hadn't bothered to hide her smile at that before offering Isabella breakfast.

After barely touching her breakfast, she did something she hadn't done since she'd arrived.

She turned on her phone.

And was immediately assaulted with tens of voice mails from her sister.

_"__It's Rosalie, you promised that you'd call when you got in and I haven't heard from you yet. Are you okay? Call me back."_

_"__You haven't called…I'm really worried. I'm still clean, I promise. Cullen has some guy checking up on me and he's actually alright. Call me back."_

_"__Isabella! It's been over a day and you haven't called me back. Emmett told me not to worry, that Cullen's an alright guy but I've heard so much stuff and…I still can't believe I got us into this mess. I'm so fucking sorry Is, I will literally spend the rest of my life making it up to you…I love you. Call me."_

_"__Emmett said that you're okay but I'm still freaked out that you haven't called me. The boys are good, I call to check up on them all of the time and they said that they miss you…I miss you and I'm so sorry. I know you wanted to wait and I took that away from you and I hate myself for it, for doing this to us. I'm going to leave him. When you get back, I'm going to leave him and we're gonna be a family again. I promise."_

A tear fell down her face as she listened to her sister's messages and she'd never felt so relieved that she wasn't alone, that Emmett was there for it. Edward had done that and she couldn't believe that she'd ever thought him to be selfish or a monster and from the sounds of it, her sister was starting to understand that he wasn't all that Royce had said.

With a small sigh, she dialed Rosalie's number.

"Isabella?" the relief in her sister's voice reminded her of simpler times, of their life before Royce King.

"Hey Rosie."

"Do not Rosie me, do you have any idea how worried I've been? God, Is, I was an hour off of coming down there and coming to make sure that you were okay. I've been so worried." Tears fell down her face as she listened to her sister speak. She sounded good, better than Isabella had heard her sound in a very long time.

"I'm fine, I promise. I was just calling to let you know that the debt is gone. All of it."

Her sister gasped in surprise. _"How?" _

"He gave me a letter an hour ago. The debt is void, you don't have to worry about it now."

"But I thought you had to stay the week?"

"He said I could leave when he gave me the letter."

"When will you be home?"

"I'm not coming home Rose. Not yet."

_"__Why?"_

"He's different Rose, he's nothing like you said he'd be and I don't want to come home. Not yet."

"Emmett's told me some stuff about him and the way I've acted toward him…I don't think I'll ever be able to face him again. I was so wrong about him Is, more wrong than I've ever been about anyone." The regret in her sister's voice breaks her heart and pisses her off at the same time. She still couldn't believe the things her sister had said to him, that she'd spit on him.

"A few more months Rose and I'll get you out. I promise."

* * *

She'd been waiting in the bedroom, re-reading Pride and Prejudice when Charlotte and a few more people entered.

"Sorry, Miss Swan, we were just coming to move the mattress."

Isabella smiled at them warmly. "Leave it."

Charlotte nodded to the others and they filed out but the woman stayed, coming over to sit at the edge of the mattress. "Are you sure you don't want me to take you home?"

"I'm positive." The woman beamed.

"I've never seen him like this. Even when he was a little boy, he needed complete control in every moment of his day. When I opened the door the other night, I knew you weren't your sister, but there was something about you." Charlotte smiled at her with kind eyes.

"How long have you known Edward?" she asked, hoping that they woman would give her more insight into the mystery that was him.

"Since he was ten," Charlotte said slowly, a frown on her face. "After what happened to him, his father thought that having a woman around would help, having no mother and all. He's smiled more in the past three days than he has in years."

Isabella smiled at that, big and goofy as her heart swelled in her chest. She wanted to make him smile. She could live for his smiles.

"He should be back soon." The woman said as she left, sending a prayer for the young woman waiting for the man who was as close to a son as she'd ever had.

* * *

But he wasn't back soon.

It was past midnight when he'd returned back to Masen Hall, having waited as long as he could before returning. He'd wanted there to be no chance to see her before she left, knowing that he'd be begging on his knees for her to say if he did. But he also wanted to be back before the sheets on his bed lost the scent of her, he wanted nothing more than to bury his nose into his pillow and breathe her in before the scent faded and he was left with nothing but memories.

Charlotte had glared at him when he'd walked through the front door before shaking her head and walking away.

He sighed.

She'd like Isabella.

He sighed again and pulled at his hair because he had too.

He'd liked her way too much.

But she was far away from him now, probably sleeping in her bed after an evening bitching about him with her sister.

The thought made his heart clench.

He moved with heavy footsteps up to the bedroom that he'd never see the same after last night. He'd been such an idiot for pushing her too far. If he hadn't, she might still be here.

With a deep breath he walked the final few feet to the bedroom door and opened it.

He nearly fell to his knees when he saw her curled up on the mattress in front of the fireplace, wearing a shirt that he knew had his name across the back of it.

She'd stayed.

_"__Bella."_

* * *

**Fic Rec:**

**Ladder to the Sun by Rosybud. Like my fic, it's inspired by a historical romance and it's so beautiful. You will not regret reading it I promise you.**

_**How can you die when you've never really lived? That's the problem Bella Swan faces when she's told she only has a year to live. Can she make up for a lonely, unhappy life in the short time she has left... and maybe find love too? **_


	23. Twenty Two

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**Your responses to the last chapter made my heart grow about ten sizes. You are my muses.**

**See you again soon!**

* * *

The sound of her name roused her and she stretched onto her back, lifting an arm to rest beside her head and revealing a sliver of pale flesh that he wished he didn't notice.

But god if he wasn't so fucking glad to see her.

"Bella." He said again and this time she woke, opening her eyes and giving him a smile so sweet he felt it in his heart.

"Hey." She said, her sleepy smile still firmly in place as she pulled herself into a sitting position. He'd never been so happy to see anyone in his entire life and that scared the fuck out of him.

"What are you still doing here?" he demanded, his voice cold. He didn't want to smile at her and then find out that the car had broken down or she hadn't felt well. He didn't want to get his hopes up. "You're supposed to be gone."

She flinched and her smile faded a little, her eyes narrowing as she stood from the mattress, his shirt hanging over her thighs turning him on even more than the silk nightgown that he'd had to throw away the night before. She crossed her arms and frowned at him.

"Where the hell have you been all day?" she demanded, her large eyes making him shift uncomfortably. His eyes widen in shock at her anger.

"I went for a drive," he said, feeling like a scolded child.

"You went for a drive?" she asked, disbelief in her voice as she threw her hands up in the air. "You left me with a stupid fucking letter and spent the whole fucking day driving? I've been waiting for you all day."

Her anger confused him and he frowned as she fumed, her sudden need to swear making his cock twitch. "Yes. I drive when I need to think."

"What the hell did you need to think about so hard so that you were gone all day?"

He looked away from her, catching his reflection in one of the mirrors on the wall. He hated noticing the emotions in his eyes that hadn't been there four days ago. "You," he said, turning back to face her.

She opened her mouth to speak but closed it when he lifted a hand. "Why are you still here? I gave you everything you needed for your sister. You should be long gone by now."

His words are harsh and he sees her confidence falter for a second before she inhales deeply and starts to speak. "You can't just give me a letter like that an expect me to just leave, especially without saying goodbye. I thought…" she stars but trails off, clenching her fists and shaking her head.

"What?" he asks, urging her to finish.

"I thought that you might…want me to stay." She says, her voice laced with the same hope that was flooding his chest.

"After what happened last night, I expected you to be happy to leave."

She flinches at that but takes a few steps forward and stops in front of him, lifting a hand to his chest. His fists clench at his sides knowing that she can feel his heart race beneath her fingertips, giving away the fact that he was by no means unaffected by her.

"Last night I was a stupid little girl running from my problems."

"You mean me. You ran away from me."

She smiled softly, her eyes sad as she shakes her head. "No, Edward. I was running from _me_. Last night, the way you touched me…no one has ever made me feel like you do and it scares me. It scares me so fucking much."

"You should go," he said, stepping away from her touch, her hand falling to her side.

"No," she quips back, taking another step forward until it was his back that was pinned to the wall. "I don't want to leave."

"Bella..." he said slowly, trailing off. "You don't want to stay with me."

"Don't tell me what I do and don't want! I've spent my entire life listening to everyone else, doing things for everything else. Don't become one of them."

Her words hit him like a wrecking ball and he breathes deeply as her scent washes over him. "You don't want this with me Bella."

"Shut up Edward." She said as she moved closer. "Tell me you don't want this. Tell me you don't want me and I'll go."

In less than a second, his hands were on her hips and his mouth was covering hers. The kiss is hard and passionate and over far too soon in both of their opinions. When he pulled back he pressed his lips to her ear before whispering; "I don't _want_ to want you."

She pulled back and smiled at him. "I don't want to want you either, but I do and I don't want to leave. Not yet."

He frowned before he ran his hands over the soft fabric covering her hips. "You're a virgin, Bella."

"I'm well aware," she said with a twisted smile.

"I'm not the kind of guy you give your virginity to, I know your sister must have told you that."

"My sister was wrong, Edward."

His face darkened then, the light emphasising the scars on his face and he grimaced at her before he pushed her away. "Your sister wasn't wrong."

"I'm not leaving," she said, ignoring his words, "not when I know you want me."

"You can't stay." He said, but his hands gripped her hips tighter, contradicting his words.

"Then tell me to leave."

He pulled back from her, his eyes pleading. "Go home, Bella."

_"No,"_ she replied before she pulled his mouth down to meet hers.

* * *

**Fic Rec:**

**Down Home by MrsSpaceCowboy.  
**

**_Sometimes, everything you're looking for ends up being right where you left it._**


	24. Twenty Three

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**This is all for you.**

**I hope you love it.**

* * *

Despite his earlier protest, he doesn't hesitate when he opens his mouth to kiss her back, and in a tangle of lips and teeth and tongue, they give more than the lustful kisses they'd shared in the days before.

Her hands tangle in his hair and she pulled him closer and closer until they were consuming one another, his hands gripping her hips so hard they both know she'd find bruises in the shape of his fingers the next day.

"Edward," she gasped as his lips travel to the spot underneath her ear that tastes like vanilla, flicking his tongue as he dropped hot open-mouthed kisses on her soft skin.

With his hands still planted firmly on her hips, it took nothing for him to lift her until her legs were wrapped around his waist, the heat at the apex of her thighs burning him through his jeans. "Bella," he groaned as she ground into his erection.

She lowered her legs from his waist and pulled back, his heartbeat pounding in fear of her rejection, knowing that he couldn't take it again. But she smiled at him shyly before lifting the hem of his shirt until it's landed across the room and then she's kissing his chest over and over, the warm heat of her mouth more satisfying than anything he's ever felt as she explored his muscles with her lips and fingers. She ran her nails over one of his nipples he groaned, feeling her answering smile against his chest as she placed one last kiss on his pectoral – directly over his heart beat before pulling away.

She leaned up on her tip toes to kiss his mouth gently before taking his hand and leading him over to the mattress on the floor, where she pushed him until he's on her back and she's straddling his waist. He fingered the hem of his shirt as it rested on her thighs, half-smiling at her, seeing his company logo resting against her left breast.

"I wanted you all over me," she said, her voice throaty and low and more erotic than any moan he's ever caused.

"I like this one better than the silk nightgown," he admitted before running his fingertips gently over her thighs until he's caressing the soft skin resting over her hip bones with his thumbs.

She blushed and beamed and all he can think about it is how she is so beautiful that his eyes nearly hurt just from looking at her. "Nobody has ever looked at me the way that you do," she admitted and then ran her fingertips gently over both of his cheeks, under his eyes and across his lips.

"How do I look at you?" he asked, sitting up and moving so that her legs are once again wrapped around his waist and that their chests are flush against one another, their hearts both hammering erratically against their rib-cages, as though reaching for one another.

Her cheeks are flushed and her lips swollen from their kisses as she smiled at him, her Bambi-eyes wide and warm and soft as they looked at him with an expression he'd never received from anyone before her. "Like I'm beautiful," she said with a soft smile.

He said nothing as he lifted his shirt from her pale form, running his fingertips softly up and down her spine as he caught her lips in a kiss that makes them both breathless.

"You are beautiful," he said when he pulled away, moving his lips, leaving hot, wet, open-mouthed kisses against her jaw and neck, until his lips were running gently over the generous curves of her breast. She moaned his name when he took her left nipple into his mouth, her hand gripping his hair as he lifted his hand to knead the other.

"You have no idea what you do to me, Bella," he said, kissing the valley between her breasts.

"I want you, Edward," she replied in a soft but firm voice as she took his hand and lowerered it to the damp peach lace covering her.

He pulled his head back to look at her face but doesn't move his hand as he caressed her through her underwear. "Are you sure? Are you sure you want this? Are you sure you want this with _me?_"

His tone was full of awe and disbelief before she smiled and it took him off guard when she nodded yes and then pushed her hips into his hand before moaning gently.

He maneuvered them until she was beneath him like she had been the night before, her expression open and her eyes shining with lust and excitement and something he could not name.

She moved her hands to the button of his jeans and he was quick to move off of her so that he could rip them off causing the both of them to giggle quietly at his enthusiasm but they soon made way for heated gazes as they both removed their underwear.

"Do I need to get a condom?" he asked with a hand on her cheek, feeling the heat under his palm as she flushed and nodded, her innocence more beautiful than any Chanel dress.

He smiled and kissed her forehead before moving into the bathroom and coming out with a small foil packet that made her flush in places she didn't realise she could.

He dropped the condom beside them before hovering over her and kissing her soundly. When he pulled away, his lips quickly found themselves on her body again as he kissed his way from her neck to her navel, whispering softly to her about how pretty she was and how good her skin felt.

When his lips found her bare mound, her fists gripped at the sheets so tightly her knuckles became white, whimpering his name as he ran his nose across the sensitive skin above her clit. When he lifted a finger to run up and down her wet lips, she moaned his name. "_Please_," she whimpered as he continued to tease her, pushing apart her thighs so that he could see her arousal for him.

"You're so wet," he said, disbelief in his voice as he gently sucked at the soft flesh of her inner thigh.

"I told you that I wanted you," she hissed in return, completely wound up and frustrated with him. "Now _please_, Edward."

He smirked before sliding a finger into her wet heat, the both of them moaned at the contact and she screamed when he leaned in to gently suck her clit into his mouth, flattening his tongue over the swollen nub and flicked, making her thighs tighten around him.

He added another finger and thrusted a little harder, preparing her for the invasion of his larger size and hummed against her clit when she moaned in response, making her thrust harder into his hand.

He moved his fingers out of her, and ignored her audible whimper when he did and moved to lick the length of her swollen sex. He groaned at the sweet taste of her before he thrusted his tongue into her, and almost came himself when he felt her begin to spasm around his tongue after a few moments and shout his name before her body came undone beneath him.

She doesn't hesitate before she pulled him back up to her and kissed him passionately, her eyes soft and happy and filled with awe as she handed him the small foil packet. "Are you sure?" he asked again, knowing with absolute certainty that if she said no he would pull away without hesitation.

She kissed him softly, "I want you. I want to give this to you."

He smiled at her, almost as unguarded as the other morning and she glowed beneath him when he ripped open the small packet with his teeth before rolling on the condom. She almost blanched when she watched him do it, not having seen his penis before. "Will it fit?" she asked and he chuckled and reveled in her innocence before he kissed her on the nose and assured her that he would.

He aligned their bodies and watched her face for hesitation – his heart swelled when he saw none in her face and gently thrusted inside of her.

* * *

She'd read about losing her virginity, had heard about it and had seen countless portrayals in films but it still hadn't prepared her for the pain.

It felt much like the chinese burn a boy she couldn't remember had given her as a child and as a tear fell from the corner of her eye, Edward kissed it away before asking her if she wanted to stop, tension in his eyes as he remained unmoving inside of her.

He breathed a small sigh of relief as she shook her head, telling him to keep going before gently pulling out of her and pushing in again and that time it hurt less, her body stretching to accommodate him. He repeated the motion, kissing her gently as the pain lessened, making way for a small stirring that hinted at a pleasure she desperately wanted, becoming more and more evident with each thrust and she soon found herself opening her legs wider.

When she thrusted back up to him the first time, he groaned her name while he whispered in her ear about how good she made him feel and how beautiful she looked beneath him.

But nothing made her feel more beautiful than the look he gave her moments before halting his movements and coming, each pulse of his release making her feel more sensual than she ever had.

He'd looked at her as though she was the most precious thing in the world.

* * *

"You didn't come," he said with a frown after returning from the bathroom where he disposed of the condom and brought her back a warm washcloth that made caused her to blush furiously when he gently wiped the sensitive spot between her legs, both of them wincing at the small spots of blood against the pale colour.

"I didn't really expect to my first time," she told him, her head over his left pectoral, enjoying the steady thump of his heartbeat against her ear and his gentle caress as he stroked his fingers up and down her spine.

He stopped his motions then, lifting her chin up to face him. "How sore are you?" he asked with a quirked eyebrow and a smirk that sends a flood of heat to the spot he'd claimed so recently.

"What do you have in mind?" she quipped back with a smirk of her own when she feels his hardness press against her hip in return.

"_Everything._"

The sound of their laughter echoes in the halls when he pulled her in for an enthusiastic kiss.

* * *

**Fic Rec:**

**The Decision by Windchymes.**

_**Edward made a decision after that second biology lesson. Two years later that decision is challenged.**_

**She writes so beautifully and has an understanding of the characters Stephenie Meyer created like no other. **


	25. Twenty Four

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**This chapter was late due to a cold, uni work and my overly affectionate cat but I will be back tomorrow. All mistakes are mine and I'm super sorry for them.**

**Also, 1000 reviews! I can't stop the stupid smile on my face.**

* * *

He woke up before she did, and the light filtering in from the crack in the curtain illuminating a line over her face and he was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

His eyes traced over her features, willing himself to memorize each eyelash and freckle for when she'd be gone. His heart clenched at the thought.

"You're going to be the death of me Isabella Swan," he whispered, thinking about the night before, about the gift she had given him and would have given him again if he hadn't seen the way she flinched when he touched her again, apologizing for her tender flesh with flush cheeks and a frown that he kissed away.

He'd run a bath for her and carried her to it while ignoring the way she protested him picking her up, but had sighed as soon as she'd settled into the water. With her back against his chest, they dozed until the water had run lukewarm before drying off lazily and falling into bed naked.

He'd fallen asleep with his head over her chest and her fingers running through his hair.

He dreamed about a future that he could not have with the brunette woman with Bambi-eyes who was smashing through walls faster than he could put them back up.

* * *

"You've been reading that same page for twenty three minutes."

She looked up from her worn copy of Wuthering Heights to see him looking up from the paper work he'd been buried in since lunch time, while he'd occasionally stolen glances at her sitting in the window seat staring down at her the book in her hand with a furrowed brow.

"I know," she said, smiling shyly and blushing as she desperately tried not to let him see the emotions bubbling beneath the surface. "But every time I read it, there's something _more_, like something I didn't understand before or a line that means something more to me now than it did the last time I read it."

He tilted his head to the side as his mouth turned up at the corners in response to her wide grin and flushed cheeks and she liked that he wasn't put off by her enthusiasm over a book.

"You're beautiful," he said without thinking and she flushed even brighter, her hand moving to fidget with the dainty rose gold chain that had been around her neck when she'd woken, the tiny little heart resting beside her own.

No one but her sister had ever given her jewellery before and she couldn't help but play with the dainty chain, enjoying the way the cool metal felt beneath her fingers.

"I love it," she'd told him after she'd thanked him, her wide smile conjuring one from him and she hadn't stopped thanking him all day.

She knew he would have no idea how relieved she was to be able to leave in a few days with a reminder that their week together had been real – that he had been real.

"You're supposed to be working," she said in reply, winking at him clumsily and returning back to her book only to look up at him again a few minutes later when she realized he hadn't stopped looking at her. "What?"

"I want you again," he said simply and she inhaled unsteadily, a flood of heat rushing to her lower half.

"Then have me."

When they left the room, her worn copy of Wuthering Heights remained open on the window seat, displaying the passage that she'd read over and over until she'd memorized the words.

_"__He shall never know I love him: and that, not because he's handsome, but because he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made out of, his and mine are the same."_

* * *

Their kisses were different this time around, hurried and clumsy as they pulled off each other's clothes and dropped them trail over the bedroom floor.

They both laughed when he fumbled with the clasp of her bra and sighed in relief when they finally reached the mattress that had been returned to the bedframe.

"So soft," he whispered as he kissed the pale flesh of her inner thigh before pulling her underwear from her, revealing her wet centre. "You're so perfect," he said, as he ran a finger over her swollen lips.

"Edward," she moaned before pulling at his shoulders until his mouth was once again meeting hers in a passionate kiss. "What are you doing to me?"

He chuckled at her comment and then pulled away from her long enough to get a condom from the bedside table before he rolled it on slowly. "Tell me if it hurts and we'll stop," he commanded and she nodded, her legs falling open when he aligned himself before gently entering her.

The lingering pain from the evening before slowly ebbed away as he pulled back again and thrusted while kissing and nipping at the flesh beneath her new necklace.

"Oh," she said after a minute, the pain having receded to the point that it was almost gone – replaced instead by the feeling of a delicious pleasure that made her moan softly and then lift her hips to meet his.

"Bella, Bella, Bella," he chanted between thrusts and she moaned his name in return, her finger nails gripping tightly at his shoulder blades as she succumbed to the pleasure he was giving her, her orgasm drawing nearer and nearer with each thrust until something snapped in him and he stopped thrusting with caution and started pounding into her, tilting her hips until he was in her so deeply that she felt she might have died from the pleasure.

She screamed his name as white bliss washed over her, blinding her in her pleasure as he continued pounding until he too had found his own, whispering her name like a prayer as he collapsed on top of her, peppering her skin with soft kisses and pretty words.

* * *

It isn't until after dinner, when she's picking her bread into little pieces with a frown on her face that she realises he hadn't looked at her the entire time.

* * *

"Edward?" she whispered. It's well after midnight and they're both tired and sated after he showed her how easily he could draw pleasure from her body.

"Yeah?" he whispered back, his breath hot against her throat as he spooned her from behind, her body relishing in the shared body heat.

"Why do you hide your face when we're…" she trailed off, not finishing the sentence but he must have understood because he stiffened against her back. He couldn't deny it, not after tonight when he'd taken her against the shower wall, his face buried against her neck and then again moments earlier in the bed.

"Would you rather I blindfold you?" he asked, his voice almost cold and she frowned.

"Why would you do that?" she asked, her fingers running over the veins in his forearm.

"It's better that way," he said with a shrug and a voice full of detachment that pissed her off.

"Why? I want to see you," she said and her heart begins to bleed for him as understanding dawns.

"No, Bella," he said, pulling away from her before he rolled onto his back. She turned over, propping herself up on one arm and looked at his face.

"But I've already seen you Edward, I've already seen the scars."

"Why would you want reminding that I'm a monster?" he asked and she slapped his chest without thinking causing both of their eyes to widen in shock.

"Do you think I care?" she seethed, her eyes flashed with anger as she stared down at him. "Do you think I'm like all of the other sluts you've had that have a go for the thrill?"

"Bella," he said her name softly and her shoulders lowered as her anger fell away, becoming replaced by a deep sadness for him. "You're nothing like those women."

"Your scars don't matter Edward, not to me. I want you."

He sat up then before he pulled her onto his lap and tucked her head under his chin, rocking her gently. "I know you do," he said softly and she sighed before snuggling further into him with a sad frown on her mouth because she knew that his walls were firmly up and that there was no way that he was going to give into her.

Not yet, anyway.

* * *

**Fic Rec:**

**Bad Blood by LadyExcalibur2010.  
**

_**Edward Cullen was a man who liked order. He arranged his life into neat little segments, exercising rigid control in all areas of his existence. Then one day, all of it was brought tumbling down by one simple question.**_

**Also, I'd love to hear what you're currently reading, so let me know so that I can check it out! **


	26. Twenty Five

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**This chapter is significantly longer than my normal ones because it just all needed to be read without a break so I hope you like it.**

**I love hearing from you.**

* * *

The next two days flew by much faster than each of them wanted, hours blurring together in a daze of pleasure as they each learned each other's bodies. For the first time in her life Bella found herself happier than she'd ever been. Not even the endless joy of being with her nephews made her feel as alive as a heated glance from Edward Cullen did.

She found that she wasn't even ashamed of how much she found herself wanting him, his body and his mind. She'd woken him during the night, wet and ready, telling him to take her. And he made it known that he relished in the fact that she wanted him as often as he wanted her.

But no amount of joy found in his arms kept her from remembering how each hour drew them closer to the end of their time together.

When their last afternoon together arrived neither of them mentioned it, but the inevitability of their separation hung over both of their heads, the tension evident in their eyes when they glanced at one another.

_How can I leave him?_ She asked herself while he lounged next to her on the bed, his laptop open as he frowned at emails, occasionally pulling a what-the-fuck face, pointing out embarrassing spelling errors or typos that made her giggle.

A few hours before they'd raced downstairs - the first time they'd left the bedroom in over a day - looking for an old world map that they'd tacked to the mirror above the bed, her watching and listening intently while Edward had marked off with a sharpie each place he'd visited, regaling her with stories of each of them. She'd laughed at strange foods and customs that he told her he'd been subjected too, tears running down her face when he describes the three says he'd spent paying homage the porcelain gods after eating Balut, a dish from the Philippines that was a fertilised chicken egg.

"I've never been out of Washington State," she told him after she asked him to tell her about Greece, everything from the colour of the Aegean to the Ancient Greek statues of gods that had fascinated her more than Snow White or Sleeping Beauty ever had.

"I'll take you one day," he said without thinking, causing them both to sink into quiet thoughts of what if.

Looking at him in those moments, she wondered how she'd ever get the strength to leave him in the morning. The thought made her cry but she refused to let her tears fall while she remained at Masen Hall, knowing she'd have plenty of time for that after.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked and then closed the lid of his laptop and put it on his bedside table before pulling her into a hug. She breathed in deeply, telling herself to memorise his scent and fully intended to steal one of his shirts when she packed the following morning.

"What we're going to have for dinner," she lied before burying her face into his chest, only to have him pull away a second later when he lifted her chin to look up at him.

"Tell me what you're really thinking about."

She smiled and blushed and bit her lip before answering him honestly. "I was thinking that if I knew how good sex had been earlier, I would have chased down the overeager boys from freshmen year."

"Stay the fuck away from idiots like that, Bella," he said, his eyes flashing with fury.

"I doubt they'd mind," she replied, grinning mischievously.

He rolled them over until he was hovering over her, an arm either side of her head. "I'm sure they wouldn't, but stay away from them anyway."

He grinned at her then and she beamed back. Edward in a teasing playful mood had quickly become her absolute favourite and she found herself falling deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole when he smiled at her like he was in that moment.

She moveed her hips to thrust against the erection that had been growing in length every second since he'd moved to lean over her and he answered her with a groan.

"How can I still want you so much? I swear I've had you almost every hour but every time you smile at me I can feel myself getting hard again," he said and ran his nose against her collarbone which made her giggle and shiver all at once and then she was pushing him away and running across out of the room. She threw a teasing smile back over her shoulder.

"Catch me," she told him before she opened the bedroom door and ran through it, the hem of her burgundy dress bouncing around her knees as she ran through the halls that no longer feel cold or menacing until she was in the library, hiding under a large desk in the corner he told her that used to be his father's.

She struggled to keep her breaths quiet when she heard him enter, her heartbeat pounded loudly through her ears as she forced herself to stay still.

"Bella," he drew out her name in a teasing yet promising tone that had her squeezing her legs shut and biting her lip. She inhaled shakily and moved her head to see where he was standing only to find herself being pulled up out from under the desk only to be planted firmly on top of it.

"Found you," he whispered hoarsely as he gripped her hips and pulled her closer until they were breathing the same air before he kissed her. His kiss was hard and passionate and everything about him she knew had her falling for him. She gasped when he started pushing her dress up her thighs.

"What if someone comes in?" she asked after pulling away from his mouth and then planted kisses along his stubble-covered jaw.

"They won't," he promised before pulling her from the desk and turned her until she was bent over it, his hands maneuvered up her thighs until he was tugging her panties down her legs and then dropped hot kisses along her exposed shoulder.

She frowned, knowing that he had moved her this way so that once again she was unable to see his face while he took her but made no move to stop him from lifting her dress to her hips before he caressed her wet sex.

"Let's go back upstairs," she offered half-heartedly and smiled when she heard him tear open one of the condoms he seemed to have stashed in all sorts of places.

"Let me have you, Bella," he whispered against her neck after he rolled on the condom, his hands tightened against her hips when he aligned himself with her.

"You already have me," she said, almost hating how true her words were.

* * *

When he thrust himself into her wet heat, they both moaned. He felt victorious that she'd given into him but at the same time pushed down the urge to lower himself onto his knees and thank God for the gift that was Isabella Swan.

"Open your legs wider," he said, his voice raw and full of the emotion that he'd spent days trying to hide from her. He was thankful that she couldn't see his face, to see how deeply she affected him.

He groaned as he thrust in and out of her perfect pussy. So tight and wet – she seemed to always be wet for him and he relished in it – in how perfect she was, how perfect for _him_ she was.

He moaned her name as her muscles tightened around his cock, letting him know that she was close and he lowered his hand to find her clit and began to rub in tight circles until she was whispering his name like a prayer and coming around him.

He pulled his hand from her clit and moved his hands to her hips, giving him more leverage to slam deeper and harder into her until she was coming around him for a second time. Her release triggered his and then he was spilling himself into the condom and dropped his hands from her hips to collapse his weight onto her.

* * *

"Don't move," she whispered when he moved his hands to lift his weight off of her.

"I'm heavy," he said in protest.

"I like it," she told him honestly. She liked the closeness after they had sex, the way he'd pull her into a tight embrace while their heartbeats steadily begin to slow. And even more than that, she loved the quiet between them as they came down from their highs, leaving her to imagine that this was more than just a temporary arrangement.

Edward Cullen wasn't like any other man she'd ever met and without having even left yet, she knew that she'd spend the rest of her life denying men who would never live up to him.

Her heart stuttered when she thought about how soon her happiness would be over.

* * *

They were both silent as they made their way up the stairs after dinner, both of them stuck in their heads when he eventually lifted himself off of her in the library.

Her face remained blank all throughout dinner as she lost herself in thoughts of the life she'd have to go back to the next day and how little it appealed to her now that she'd tasted passion.

"You've been stuck inside of your head all day," he said after they'd made their back into the room, her eyes showed a flicker of emotion as he pulled his shirt off.

_He's so beautiful_, she thought as she watched him undress, her body slowly coming to life once again under his green eyed gaze as he watched her watch him through the mirrors. _And for one more night, he's mine._

* * *

He made his way over to where she leaned against the dresser and then pulled her into his embrace as he dropped soft kisses along her neck, committing her taste and smell to memory.

_They only had one more night._

The thought almost made him ill and he pulled her closer without giving it much thought, knowing that they had just over twelve hours left until she'd be gone again and fuck if he hadn't been counting the seconds they still had left. He knew that saying goodbye to her the next day was going to hurt like hell.

"What's wrong, Bella?" he asked as he pulled away from her enough to watch her face as she struggled to form an answer for him.

"Nothing," she said but frowned at him, knowing her lie was unconvincing. He resisted the urge to kiss away the little cross between her brows, understanding for the first time in his life how his father must have felt knowing that his wife was going to die and leave him.

He'd always believed that he'd never understand how his father had retreated into himself after his mother had died, becoming a shell of the man he'd been before. He'd never experienced even an ounce of the passion his father had felt for Esme, never having one person that he'd ever let get that close to him.

Until Bella.

But she was going to leave him the next day and he didn't know what the hell he was going to do.

Her lips found his neck and pulled him from his thoughts and he looked down to find her looking up at him with all of the passion that scared the fuck out of him.

"Get on the bed," she said, the words falling from her lips so quickly she seems to have shocked herself as well as him.

"Bella…" he said, shaking his head as understanding dawned.

"Lie down on the bed, Edward," she said again, her voice firm.

His stomach jumped at the thought of giving into her, of handing over control and making love to her without hiding his scars from her.

He breathed in deeply as he looked into her bambi-eyes. _Only for her_, he thought as he pulled away from her and made his way over to the bed, _only for Bella._

* * *

She watched with heated eyes as he did as she asked, lying down on the bed and looking up at her as she summoned some of the courage he'd given her each time he looked at her the way he was now, like she was the only woman in the world. She pulled the zipper of her dress down slowly, revealing her naked body – he'd refused to give her underwear back after they'd made love in the library - and she stood before him, watching as his erection grew so rapidly it made her blush.

"You want me," she whispered as she made her way over to the bed and then climbed onto it. She pulled his underwear off, licking her lips as his erection sprung free.

"Always," he replied, his voice hoarse as he watched her wrap her hand around his length.

"I want you," she whispered against his hip bone, her breath hot against his skin.

"You have me," he said, echoing her words from the library and her heart swelled, hoping he meant the words.

The only sounds in the room were from their breaths as she reached into the nightstand for a condom before tearing the packet open with her teeth. They said nothing as she rolled it onto his hot length.

"Look at me, Edward," she demanded as she aligned her body with his, her hands on his chest as she lowered herself onto his length, hissing at the new depth.

She rode him slowly, her breaths shallow each time he hits that sweet spot that makes her toes curl but he refuses to give in. When she stopped moving his gaze finally found hers and she notices then the clenched fists by his side and the ticking muscle in his jaw, giving away the tension that he was so good at hiding from her.

"Please Edward, please let me have this," she begged. _Please let me have you,_ she pleaded silently, _please let me be different from the others._

She didn't know that she'd already carved her name into his soul, scarring him more deeply than the cuts on his face had.

"Trust me," she whispered, dropping a soft kiss onto his mouth and thrusting against him.

With a shaky breath, he finally nodded.

* * *

He watched in the mirror above as she rode him, her dark hair cascading down her back as she thrust against him, picking up his clenched fists and placing them on her hips until he's gripping her so tightly he knows she'll have bruises from his fingertips.

"You're wonderful, Edward," she said from above him and his gaze hardened as he watched her watch him, her eyes boring into his.

"Don't lie to me."

_"__Edward,_" she said softly, her eyes becoming glassy as she leaned further toward him, her hair becoming a curtain around him. "Your body is magnificent, I love it and no matter how many times you've had me over the past three days, I still can't help but want you again."

He felt a catch in his throat as a tear fell down her cheek, landing on his chest as she continued to move her body against his, bringing him more pleasure than he'd ever felt before. "No one has ever made me feel the way you do, it's consuming and amazing and beautiful and you're so beautiful Edward."

_"__Bella,"_ he said, the awe in his voice burning through him as he looked up at the girl who had set his world on fire. No one had ever called him beautiful before her and it made his heart swell.

"Shhh," she whispered laying soft kisses along his scars that made his body shake. He made her feel so much and he almost hated her for it. Hated the way she'd changed him so irrevocably in such a short amount of time.

"Bella," he said again, his voice urgent this time and tried to pull her off of him only to have her pin his arms beneath hers. He could throw her from him without thinking but refused to move.

Her mouth slanted over his and captured his in a kiss that burned him to the core. Her tongue dominated his mouth and he gasped as she lifted herself until just the tip of him remained inside of her before slamming her hips down and making them both cry out.

She did it again and again and he fought against stopping her and begging her for more.

She whispered his name like a chant as she came around him but continued to slam down onto him until he followed her.

She collapsed on top of him, dropping lazy kisses onto his chest and whispering a soft thank you into his damp skin before she lifted herself from him so that he could dispose of the condom.

When he returned to the bed, she was pulling back the blankets so that he could climb in next to her and he pulled at her until she was laying across his chest, her warm breath tickling him.

She remained quiet for so long that he thought she'd fallen asleep until she moved her head to look up at him.

"What is it?" he asked, stroking his thumb across her flushed cheek.

"Edward?" she asked slowly, more hesitant than she's acted since her second day at Masen Hall and his heart rate picked up, anticipating her question before she's even asked it. "How did you get your scars?"

* * *

**Fic Rec:**

**Dissonance by Mortissues.**

_**I haven't so much made a success of myself as simply fallen through the cracks in my life and somehow landed buttered side up. I am toast. The fifty percent lucky slice that you rescue from your kitchen counter and shove in your mouth as you run out the door, breathless and late, to start your new day.**_


	27. Twenty Six

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**So I re-edited the past four or five chapters back into the past tense because I seriously suck and have slipped up way too much. That being said, I've said a couple times that all of the mistakes I made are my own so if you do see any, point them out so that I can fix them instead of being nasty about them. I'm not a professional writer, so I make mistakes.**

**Also, my instagram is sharna_marie_ if anyone wants to follow me!**

* * *

He inhaled sharply at her question before he pulled his body out from under her, moving until sat at the edge of the bed. He groaned and pulled at his hair, trying to stop from hyperventilating. He flinched when her hand reached up to touch his back, her fingertips burning his skin.

"You don't want to hear it Bella," he told her and closed his eyes, making himself deeply when her lips found the back of neck as she dropped soft kisses along his nape. "I don't want you to hear it."

"I think I need to hear it." Her eyes watered as she wound her arms around him before resting her head on his shoulder. "Please Edward."

He remained silent for a few minutes as he thought about the scared little old boy who had been cornered and ruined.

"It happened when I was ten. A few of them cornered me in the bathroom at school," he said the words slowly and her arms tightened around him as he spoke.

"It was Royce." It wasn't a question.

"It was," he said, squeezing her hands when he felt a tear fall from her face onto his chest.

"You didn't deserve it," she said, her voice choking as she moved from behind him to his front, winding her legs around his hips before she traced his scars with her index finger. "What happened?"

He swallowed, not sure he wanted to tell her everything but one look into her tear-filled eyes and he opened his mouth to speak. "It was Royce and James Hunter and Laurent Thorn. They'd stolen some carving tools from the art room and backed me into a corner, told me to be a quiet bastard or they'd make it hurt more."

She gasped at that and he smiled sadly as he wiped tears from her cheeks as she cried for him. "Why didn't anyone stop them? Why didn't they help you?"

"I didn't scream or cry out. I refused to give in to Royce. He'd been jealous of me our entire lives and I wasn't going to let him beat me. Emmett and Jasper eventually found me," he told her as he kissed her wet cheeks. "There was so much blood and I almost didn't get help in time. Edward Senior payed the school off not to expel Royce, even though they found him covered in my blood."

"I hate him," she hissed, her voice angrier and harsher than he'd ever heard from her. "And the others. How could they have done that? You were just a _boy_."

"Oh, sweet girl," he said, his body warm from the fact that she was angry for him. While his father had cared, he'd only shown grief as he avoided the hospital room that became Edward's home for over a month, never getting angry that his nephew had done it and his father had covered it up. "I got my revenge on James and Laurent years ago. I uncovered evidence of James raping women and covering it up and turned it into the police; he died last year in a prison brawl and Laurent is working a shitty desk job in Ohio after his family disowned him for helping James."

She nodded and sniffed before frowning, realisation dawning. "And Royce? What about your revenge on Royce?"

He half smiled but it didn't reach his eyes. "I'll work something out. I already have most of his company's investors on my side."

She said nothing, but wrapped her arms around his back and held onto him tightly, pressing her ear into his chest wishing that she could make him see what she saw whenever she looked at him.

"And me," she whispered as she stroked his back gently. "You have me on your side."

* * *

_You have me on your side._

The words echoed in his mind as her body remained wrapped around him, holding him so tightly that her scent was all around him and he swore to himself that he'd never let Charlotte wash the sheets so long as her scent still clung to them.

He moved them until they were laying down, their bodies so closely entwined that they were practically breathing in one another. He placed gentle kisses all over her face as her tears finally stopped. "I'm sorry I made you cry," he whispered against her cheek.

"Don't be. I'm just so _angry_ that this happened to you," she said, her voice as sad as her eyes.

"It's okay now, Bella. It doesn't hurt anymore," he told her honestly. What he didn't tell her was how afraid of how much it would hurt tomorrow morning when she would drive away from him.

And even though he'd told himself not to waste a minute of their last night together, he quickly drifted into unconsciousness.

* * *

She woke slowly, her body covered in goose bumps from the cold air which contrasted deliciously with the feel of the hot, wet kisses Edward left on her bare stomach.

She opened her eyes to the barely-lit room and looked down to find him staring back up at her, his green eyes blazing so brightly they brought tears to her eyes.

He moved back up her body then, claiming her mouth with a commanding passion that almost had her coming apart even before he thrust into her.

He moved sensually, thrusting deep and hard, his eyes never leaving hers. He possessed her with a consuming passion and the only sounds in the room were the ones coming from their bodies as they connected over and over.

He whispered her name as he thrust harder and she lifted her legs to wrap around his waist, changing the angle and forcing him deeper in to her. He groaned. He accelerated, pushing into her harder as her fingernails dug into his back and her mouth collided with his.

Her orgasm loomed on the horizon and she nearly sobbed at the sensation, at the promise of pleasure right around the corner and her legs tightened around him a second before she came undone. His name fell from her lips over and over as she succumbed to the bliss he had given her.

He continued to pound into her, his thrusts choppy and uneven until he too found his release before collapsing on top of her and dropping soft kisses on every bit of her skin he could reach.

When she opened her eyes a few minutes later, she noticed the orange spilling into the room, signalling that dawn had come. Her eyes filled with tears as the room brightened.

* * *

He'd given her everything he had, finally moving off of her and noticing for the first time the colours of dawn spilling into the room. He hated what that meant.

That their night was over.

That their time was almost up.

He pulled her into his chest, aware of her tears as she buried her face into his shoulder.

He struggled to find the words to comfort her as she wiped at her face, moving until she was straddling him, her tangled hair covering her breasts as she hovered over him silently, her eyes red and her lips swollen.

She was so beautiful.

She picked up his hand and lifted it to her mouth, placing a soft kiss on the centre of his palm, looking down at him with awe and wonder and something that looked a lot like love.

His heart stuttered at the thought.

Did she love him?

He swallowed and cupped her cheek, pulling her until their lips were barely an inch apart and just before they would meet, he pulled back to stare into her Bambi-eyes.

"Don't leave."

* * *

**All The Wild Horses by elusivetwilight (have I mentioned my favourite kind of Edward is the strong and silent type?)**

_**In her suffocating small hometown, Bella Swan meets widowed Edward Cullen. Can she pull him from the depths of his grief? Is there enough of him left to soothe her clawing loneliness?**_


	28. Twenty Seven

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**Thank you so much for your continued support and love. I read every single review and they make my day.**

**I'm not going to lie and say the angst is over but Rome wasn't built in a day.**

**Reviews are love!**

* * *

The colour drained from her face and she moved to pull away from him, only to be stopped by him as he sat up and wound his arms around her, trapping her.

He also knew what she would say before she opened her mouth.

"I can't stay, Edward." Her voice was hoarse from crying and she moved to pull away again, but he refused to let her go.

"You can," he insisted, stroking her back and touching her forehead with hers. He knew she didn't want to leave, she had just been crying like her heart was broken, so why was she denying him?

He pulled away a fraction to study her face, illuminated by the early morning light she looked sadder and more defeated than she had when she arrived and it made his heart ache. He missed the way she'd looked just minutes ago when she'd been under him, the way her emotions had been written on her face.

"If I don't go back today, people will get suspicious," she whispered sadly, running her thumb across his non-scarred cheek.

He kissed her palm and smiled sadly at her. "Would that be so bad?"

"If I'm gone longer than I said, Royce will try to look for me. I'm supposed to work for him and watch the kids and I don't want to risk him hurting my sister for an extra day with you, no matter how much I want to."

He smiled at her, stroking her hair as he kissed her forehead before pulling back to look into her eyes. "I didn't mean one more day, Bella."

"Even if I stayed another week, we're still only putting off the inevitable Edward," she said and he lost his smile, his face turning serious.

He sucked in a breath before speaking. "I'm not asking for you to stay another week, Bella. I'm asking you to stay forever."

She stiffened then, dropping her hands from his face and then frowned at him. "I can't Edward."

"Why not?" he asked, challenging her.

She smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. "Can you imagine what people would say if they found out I'd done this? Or what Royce would do to my sister or if she started doing drugs again? He'd stop paying my tuition and I have months before I can access my trust fund."

He sucked in his breath and stared into her dark eyes, speaking before he can even think.

"Then marry me."

* * *

Shock flooded through her, freezing the blood in her veins and making her heart stop and restart in triple time. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears as she stared at him. Was he insane?

"_Edward,_" she gasped. "We've known each other a _week._"

He shifted back and continued to look into her eyes and she noticed a lightness in his emerald irises that hadn't been there before. "That isn't a good enough reason."

"You can't be serious right now," she insisted, her eyes wide.

His mouth rose into a crooked smile and his eyes were bright. "I'm dead serious. Marry me."

"I- I…" she drifted off, not knowing what to say and his smirk grew.

"You're not happy living with your sister and I own one of the most profitable companies in the U.S. I could pay your tuition and we could get your sister a good divorce lawyer."

His words made sense and she bit her lip to stop herself from saying yes, to agreeing to everything. That surprised her. She had never wanted to get married, to be tied down to a man – to be his property but she knew that she wouldn't mind belonging to Edward Cullen.

"You're the best man I've ever met Edward Cullen," she told him, her voice shaking with nerves.

"But you won't marry me," he said, doing a surprisingly good job of keeping the disappointment from his voice.

"I need to think," she said, leaning in to kiss his lips gently.

"I don't want you to leave," he said honestly, pulling her closer.

"I don't want to leave," she told him, a tear spilling down her face. "I want to stay here in our perfect little bubble but I need some time to think first." She had to plan, she needed to talk to her sister and she needed to talk to her soon.

"How long do you need?" he asked, wiping away her tear and kissing her gently.

"A week?" she asked and he nodded, thanking god that it wasn't longer. He could manage a week.

"A week." He confirmed.

* * *

He watched her from the corner of his eye as he drove them away from Masen Hall. She'd changed back into the clothes she'd brought with her rather than the ones he'd bought and he hated seeing the frumpy, thread-bare t-shirt she'd worn on her first night.

"Edward?" she asked an hour into the trip. They'd both sat in silence since they'd left the manor and he hated that already their bubble was starting to pop. With her figure slumped and her fingers fidgety she looked like a completely different person that the one she'd been the past three days.

"Yeah?" he asked, turning down the radio and squeezing her knee before he put his hand back on the gear shift.

"Your scars? Surely a plastic surgeon could have gotten rid of them, or helped you…" she drifted off but he understood the question in her words and gripped the steering wheel tighter.

"Do you remember how I said that Royce had stolen tools from the art room?"

She nodded.

"I got an infection a couple of days after they stitched me up and had to re-open. I was so angry that Royce had done it and that my grandfather had covered it up and that my father didn't seem to care that I told the plastic surgeon who I saw after the second surgery to leave them. I wanted a reminder of what they'd all done, betraying me in their individual days. I hated my father for the longest time because he didn't fight Senior, I didn't realise until after that he was just trying to avoid an all-out family feud."

She breathed in deeply and turned her face to his, smiling at him sadly as she placed her hand on his knee, resting it there as she fiddled with the radio. "Thank you."

* * *

A few miles outside of Seattle he pulled over.

"Why did we stop?" she asked and frowned at him. Her eyes widening in surprise when he leaned over to unclip her seatbelt before reclining his chair back and pulling her over the gear stick into his lap.

"A cab is about to pick you up," he told her, his eyes sad as he planted small kisses to her skin, inhaling her scent as though he would never smell it again. "I can't be seen dropping you off."

Her heart welled at his words, that he'd thought about it and she smiled at him, her eyes welling up with tears. She'd cried more in the past day than she had her entire life.

"This is so hard," she whispered against his neck. "I knew leaving you wouldn't be easy but…"

He exhaled deeply as she buried herself closer into his body, relieved that she wasn't still acting weird after his proposal. He didn't want to let her go and had half a mind to turn back around and keep her hidden from Rosalie and Royce and everyone who could hurt her. Within a week she'd wiggled her way into his heart and he wasn't sure if he was ever going to get her out again. He wanted to marry her, to see her smiling every day and showing him the same unconditional love she had towards her sister.

"You don't have to go," he whispered against her ear. "I can turn the car back around or we can go to my house in the city."

"I wish I could," she said before she kissed him soundly, pouring every emotion that she had into it. Her despair that they couldn't be together yet, her defeat that Royce was once again ruining the best thing in her life, her love for him.

She had never loved anyone more than she loved Edward Cullen.

And now she had to leave him.

* * *

The cab pulled up then and he pulled her into a kiss, pouring all of his passion into it, willing her to see that he loved her. That he was _in love_ with her. The thought almost made him laugh. He'd always thought himself incapable of the emotion but Bella had summoned it and he could feel her name branded into his soul.

"Don't go," he whispered in one last attempt to keep her from leaving him.

She kissed him gently and touched her fingertips to his scarred cheek, the look in her Bambi-eyes almost enough to shatter him.

"You promised me a week to think about your insane offer," she said and gave him a watery smile. "Thank you."

"Bella," he whispered when she went to pull herself from his lap.

She paused, seeing in his eyes the pain she knew would be reflected back in hers, that she felt radiating throughout her entire being. "I know."

When she moved to pull away again, he let her go.

* * *

**Fic Rec:**

**Contractually Bound by LyricalKris. (I think I like this one so much because of the imperfect characters, they're realistic and wonderful)**

_**She'd cost him everyone he'd ever loved. Surely a few months of marriage wasn't too high a price for her to pay in compensation.**_


	29. Twenty Eight

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**I've planned out the remaining chapters and at most there are ten left so not long left now!**

**See you tomorrow!**

* * *

She felt nothing but ice in her veins as she walked up the drive way to the sprawling Estate she'd lived in since her father had died. Even the trees lining the road no longer held the same appeal as they had a week ago, the branches overhead hiding the sky, giving the illusion of arms reaching. She felt suffocated already and she hadn't even made it inside the house yet.

She chuckled at the fact that the only time in her life that she'd felt free was when she'd practically been trapped.

She thought of Edward's face when she'd driven away in the cab and her heart broke all over again. She already missed him so much and it had barely been an hour.

How was she supposed to last a _week_ without the man?

She wasn't going to stay here. She couldn't just go back to her half-life now that she finally felt alive. No, she planned to grab the files from where she'd hidden them and get her sister and her nephews out of that house. She needed to talk to the lawyer in charge of her trust fund first, to pull enough of it out to cover her tuition and to rent a house so that her sister and the boys would have somewhere safe to stay, somewhere away from Royce.

And then she was going to tell Edward yes.

She'd decided almost as soon as she'd gotten into the cab. When she'd started driving away it had felt like someone had punched a hole in her chest. She couldn't live without him. She'd never wanted to belong to anyone until she'd met Edward Cullen and now she couldn't wait to be his.

She sighed and walked around to the back of the house, using her spare key to enter the kitchen from the back. She expected to be met with Ms Wilson, the chef Royce had employed after deciding that neither Rosalie nor Isabella could cook a meal worthy of him.

_Asshole._

The kitchen, for the first time in three years, was empty and as she walked through the kitchen and up the stairs, she noticed that none of the other people her brother-in-law employed to work in the house were around either.

"Rosalie?" she called out as she dropped her bag in her bedroom, ignoring the cold white walls that had felt warm to her just a week ago.

"Isabella?" her sister's voice came from inside of her son's bedroom and beckoned her with her hand. "Quick, come here!"

She made her way down the hall to find her sister haphazardly shoving Henry and Ethan's clothing into large duffle bags. "What are you doing?"

Her sister turned to face her and Isabella gasped. He'd hit her again. With a bruise covering half of her left cheek and her eye swollen shut, Isabella seethed.

"What the fuck has he done to you?"

Her sister stepped back, shocked at her use of language and then her shoulders slumped and started crying. "He found my phone and texts from Emmett, they were innocent but…" she trailed off. "I can't stay Isabella. I can't have the kids around him anymore. I can't believe I stayed so long and what I've _done_ to make myself stay."

She reached over and pulled her sister to her, hugging her for the first time since she'd given birth to Ethan. When she pulled away, she pushed Rosalie's hair out of her face in a maternal gesture that her elder sister used to do to her. "Okay, we'll leave."

"Really?" her sister asked, the hope in her voice bringing tears to her eyes.

"Edward will help. We'll go to his building."

Rosalie cringed, her face changing from grief to shame and she shook her head. "The way I'm treated him Is…I wouldn't help me if I was him."

Isabella winced, remembering Edward's face when he'd told her what Rosalie had done to him. "He'll help," she said confidently, knowing that he would and even if he didn't want to, he'd do it for her. He hadn't told her that he loved her, but she'd seen in in his eyes when they'd made love during this morning's sunrise.

"Okay," her sister said, wiping her tears, hissing when she accidently brushed her bruise and turned around to continue packing her son's clothes and favourite toys. Isabella helped, packing the things she knew the boys would like the most from their shelves.

"Is, do you know where Henry's red cape…" her sister trailed off and Isabella looked up to see Rosalie's face as white as a sheet as she looked in the doorway.

"Did you think that you could just fucking leave?" Isabella stiffened and turned to find Royce standing unsteadily in the doorway, the smell of scotch wafting through the room and both women flinched.

"Royce, sweetie," her sister started, but Royce lifted a hand and silenced her.

"The company fired me this morning," his voice was low but manic and Isabella reached to hold her sister's hand. "My own fucking company fired me. It was Cullen, I fucking know that bastard did this. He's _always_ been jealous of me."

She bit her lip to stop from screaming at him that he was delusional.

Royce stepped into the room then, his wild eyes trained on the bags on the bed and then their joined hands. "And imagine me coming home, expecting to find my loving wife ready to comfort me but instead to find you two cunts planning to leave."

"Royce, it's not what you-" he cut Rosalie off again.

"I never thought you'd actually ever do it Isabella. You were always so fucking easy to step all over, I thought that I'd have at least until you got your trust fund for you to leave." His eyes made her shiver and he leaned on the rocking chair to steady himself, the smell of alcohol seeping from his pores made her nauseous. He switched his gaze to Rosalie. "And you. My use for you ran out when your money did."

He stepped forward again, reaching out and shoving Rosalie to the ground, breaking apart their hands. He wrapped his hands tightly around Isabella's arms and shook her. "You can't leave until I have your trust fund. I need the money." His voice was low and menacing and Isabella felt bile rising as his breath blew in her face.

"No," she said, defying him for the first time in her life.

He dropped his hands and gripped her hair in a fist, making her cry out as the hairs were tugged from her scalp and he raised his fist. "What the fuck did you just say to me?!"

"Get your fucking hands off of her." Edward's voice echoed throughout the room as he strode in before punching Royce in the jaw, causing him to drop her hair.

She scrambled over to where her sister was huddled beside Ethan's cot and hugged her. Royce picked himself up and tried to land a punch on Edward, but being drunk caused him to miss completely and he stumbled.

"Are you okay?" Edward asked as she pulled her sister to her feet.

"Now we are," she said quietly, her heart almost exploding with the knowledge that he came for her.

"You _know_ him?" Royce hissed from behind Edward and Isabella flinched.

"Let them go, King," Edward ordered, his voice measured and cold.

They all stepped back when Royce pulled a gun from his pocket and trained it at Rosalie. "I won't let you leave Rosalie. Not with him. You're _mine._"

Her sister shook with her sobs as her husband clicked the safety of the gun off. "Royce, please," she pleaded shaking her head.

"I loved you!" he screamed at her, the gun shaking in his unsteady hands.

They all flinched when a gunshot rang out, a bloody circle forming between Royce's eyebrows before his body crumbled to the floor.

He'd killed himself.

Rosalie pulled away from her sister to vomit on the carpet and Isabella found her body being held up by Edward as her knees shook.

She didn't even realise she had been crying until he began wiping her tears away. "You're okay, I promise, you're gonna be okay now," his voice was low and gentle and she cried harder in his arms.

"Is," her sister said from beside them and they looked up to see Rosalie wiping her mouth. "Edward can't stay here. They'll think it was him."

The wheels turned in her head at her sister's words and she nodded, pulling away from Edward with a sad frown. "She's right, they'll arrest you as soon as they see you, everyone knows you hate each other."

Edward nodded slowly and drew her in for another hug. She breathed in deeply, pulling his scent into her lungs, the familiar smell calming her down right away. When he pulled away from her he gave her a small smile and pushed a fly away hair from her eyes. "When the cops leave, call Emmett and we'll come and get you."

"Thank you, Edward." Rosalie's words shock them all and Edward nods at her before dropping a kiss on Isabella's forehead.

"Call Emmett. Don't forget," he told her before walking to the bedroom door and she nodded.

"I won't," she promised and he smiled at her before walking out.

She breathed in deeply, realising that she'd started crying again and ran out of the room, finding him halfway down the staircase. "Edward!"

He turned to look up at her, concern etched on his face. "What is it?"

She smiled a little before she chickened out. "I'll see later." _I love you._

He nodded, giving her a small smile before he continued to descend the stairs before he left the house.

_I'll tell him tonight_, she swore to herself before turning back to find her sister.

* * *

After Rosalie calls the police, they call Helena whose voice didn't waver after they informed her that her son had killed himself and she didn't pause before asking if they were okay and offering to keep the boys for a few more days.

The police weren't so easy.

They asked question after question after they taped off the area and removed Royce's body from the house in a bag. Her sister had thrown up again at the sight of it.

_How long has Mr King been abusing your sister?_

_Has he ever hit you or the children?_

_Do you know where he got the gun?_

_Did he kill himself?_

Isabella didn't feel like she could finally breathe until they'd all left the house and she waited in the bathroom as her sister showered, refusing to leave her alone.

She towel dried Rosalie's hair and helped her dress. She seemed to be in shock, her tears were gone but she hadn't stopped whispering _he's dead, he's gone_ over and over/.

They packed bags silently and retrieved the bags the police had brought downstairs after deciding the children's clothes weren't evidence.

Rosalie had just pulled her phone from her pocket when Emmett burst through the front door, his eyes wide and his face flushed. Her sister ran across the foyer to throw her arms around Emmett and he held her tightly, whispering into her ear as he stroked her hair gently. He looked up then and met Isabella's gaze. He let Rosalie go and frowned.

"They arrested Edward."

* * *

**I know, I'm horrible.**

**Fic Rec:**

**Young Pilgrims by ineedyyoursway  
**

**_Bella lives a life without passion. Passion is the only thing Edward has._**


	30. Twenty Nine

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**I'm sorry I left you hanging.**

* * *

_"__What?"_

"One of your neighbors told the cops that they saw his car driving away. They arrested him an hour ago," Emmett frowned as he took in the bruise covering half of Rosalie's face.

"But he didn't do anything!" Isabella shouted, her whole body growing cold as she thought about Edward being held in a cell.

"I know that, but he has motive," Emmett explained, trying to calm her down. "And half of the cops in the city have it out for him because of Senior, he never hid the fact he thought Edward was bad news. There's no physical evidence, they're just being assholes."

Isabella said nothing in reply and made her way over to her bag where she pulled the file that she'd had hidden under her mattress for weeks.

"Here," Isabella said, thrusting the file in Emmett's face. "It's proof that Senior covered up Carlisle's marriage. Cullen Industries is Edward's."

Emmett let go of her sister to open the file, his face turning white as he flipped through and realised that what she was saying was true. "This is legit," Emmett said with disbelief. Edward wasn't the bastard he'd been led to believe.

"Where did you find that?" her sister asked with surprise, reading with Emmett. Isabella sighed with relief, it was the most emotion she'd showed since they'd called Helena.

"It was in the things Royce had me look through to try to find something worth some money. I was going to give it to Edward tonight," she said quietly.

Emmett took her hand and squeezed it gently. "Let's go."

* * *

The drive to the police station was spent in silence, but it hadn't escaped her attention that her sister hadn't let go of Emmett's hand the entire time.

"His lawyers are trying to make a deal for bail but Edward told them not to bother. His exact words were 'I didn't kill the motherfucker' so they might be a little stressed out," Emmett explained as they made their way through the police station and into a conference room where at least ten people were standing deep in argument.

"So what if his car was there! It doesn't mean he killed the asshole!" a small but very attractive woman hissed from one side of the room.

"Mrs Whitlock, the man was your brother…" an exasperated officer said from across the room. She then gave the man a look that should have melted his face off.

"Listen here you-" Alice started but was cut off by a blonde man Isabella knew to be Jasper Whitlock.

"My wife is a little stressed right now," he said apologetically. "Her brother has just killed himself and her cousin is being accused of murdering him so she's a little confused."

"That's why I'm here," Emmett said from the doorway, drawing the attention of the people in the room for the first time.

"What the fuck is she doing here Emmett?" Alice hissed glaring at Rosalie, who grabbed her sister's hand. Alice and Rosalie had never gotten along, her tension with Royce over Edward making their relationship extremely difficult until Alice had ceased talking to Royce all together.

She then stepped into the room and the people noticed the bruise on her face, Alice's face lost all colour. "Edward didn't do it," Rosalie said quietly.

"It's hard to prove that after you and your sister lied to the police about Mr Cullen being at your house Mrs King. Why would he have been there in the first place?" an officer that they talked to hours earlier asked and Isabella swallowed before stepping forward.

"He was there to see me," she told the officer, "We're seeing each other. Ask his house keeper Charlotte, she'll confirm that he and I spent the past week at his manor near Forks."

The officer winced. "He still had motive to kill Royce King."

"He doesn't actually," Emmett said, handing the officer the file she'd given him. "Isabella found this when Royce told her to go through his grandfather's things. It's proof that Edward Senior covered up his son's marriage. Edward is the rightful owner of Cullen Industries."

"_What?_" Alice asked, walking around the room to examine the file for a few moments before she stepped back and seethed. "That fucking asshole!"

"Royce had no clue that I had it," Isabella tells the officer.

The officer nodded and handed the file to his partner. "I'm going to go talk to the judge."

* * *

She sat in the conference room with Emmett, Jasper, Alice and Rosalie as they waited for the judge to release Edward. The chair was hard against her back and she was made even more uncomfortable beneath the gaze of Alice who looked like she had something to say but kept her mouth shut.

It seemed like it had been a lifetime since she'd woken up beside Edward and it had barely been twelve hours.

She sighed and shifted in her chair, lifting her hand to touch the small chain around her neck, running it through her fingers as she thought about the morning he'd given it to her, how happy they'd been.

"Where did you get that?" Alice asked, leaning over the table to examine her necklace.

"He gave it to me," Isabella said, her face turning red. Alice's eyes widened in shock.

"That was the first gift Carlisle ever bought for Edward's mother," Alice said and her hand fell from the necklace in shock.

Alice smirked at her reaction.

"Mrs Whitlock, Mr Cullen wants to talk to you," one of Edward's lawyers said from the doorway and through the window she could see Edward standing, talking to an officer and his other lawyer.

He saw her staring at him and smiled warmly at her through the glass. Her heart swelled.

Alice and Jasper rose and made their way out of the room, file in hand and she watched them talk to Edward through the window, watching his demeanor turn from relief and happiness to confusion. She watched Alice hand him the file and his face lost all colour as he flicked through the pages. She saw Alice say her name and he turned to look at her again through the glass, shock written all over his face.

No one was prepared for him striding through the room and throwing the file onto the table, right in front of her.

"How long have you had this?" he asked, his voice low and cold and she stood, pushing her chair back and clenching her fists.

"I found it a few weeks ago," she said quietly, flinching when he slammed his fist into the table.

"_Weeks?! _When the fuck were you going to tell me?"

"I was going to give it to you tonight," she told him honestly and he chuckled darkly, much like he had the first night they'd met.

"How can I believe that? How can I believe anything you've said now?" he asked, his expression pained as he looked at her and a tear fell down her face as she stepped forward, only to have him lift a hand and stop her.

"I was scared! You've seen what he's done to my sister, I needed to make sure we were safe before I gave it to you," she said, trying to explain but he would have nothing of it.

"I would have kept you safe!" he shouted and she cried harder. "You knew how I felt about this! I didn't tell anybody but I told you and you obviously didn't fucking care if you kept this from me."

"No," she said, shaking her head. "Edward, I-"

He cut her off. "Leave."

"What?" she asked, her face turning white.

"I don't want to see your face again. Get out," he said, his face void of all emotion.

"Edward," she said pleading with him. _Don't do this Edward, please don't do this._

"Leave, Isabella."

The use of her full name broke her and her tears stopped. She reached up with shaking hands to take off his mother's necklace. "Here," she said, holding it out to him.

A flicker of emotion flashed across his face. "Keep it."

"But-"

"Just leave."

She walked out of the room, her sister on her heels.

As soon as she was gone from sight, he fell to his knees.

* * *

**Fic Rec:**

**The Selkie Man by DarkBlueBella**

_**A summer studying Scottish folktales leads to Bella Swan meeting a stranger unlike anyone she has ever met. Can she let herself believe that myth and legend might also be reality?**_


	31. Thirty

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**This one's short but I'll be back soon!**

* * *

**One Week Later**

Slipping into his role as CEO at Cullen Industries had been easy. He'd already won over most of the board members before his cousin had put a bullet in his brain and the process had been seamless. Cullen Industries became Cullen Enterprises, logos were changed and employees were hired and fired.

And it all meant nothing.

He'd been a mess all week, his mind on the woman who had betrayed him rather than finally owning of the company that he'd worked his entire adult life to control.

His lawyers had started the process to sue the officers in charge of his arrest, who had since admitted that they'd been on the pay roll of both Edward Senior and Royce King and were under instruction to arrest Edward in the event of Royce's sudden death.

Despite how busy his life had been, he still had been able to put her face out of his mind. Every time he closed his eyes she was there.

She'd been calling his cell multiple times every day, never leaving a voice mail but he still refused to pick up, his heart breaking a little more each time he'd hit ignore.

He couldn't talk to her now, not after what she'd hidden from him. She knew how much being called a bastard had affected him, how much he'd hated the endless names his mother had been called and the damage his illegitimacy had done to his father's mental health and she'd still kept it from him.

"Edward, we have a meeting in ten," Jasper said from the doorway to his office.

He inhaled deeply and stood, buttoning up his suit jacket before glancing at the missed calls on his phone.

He changed his phone number an hour later.

* * *

**Three Weeks Later**

He hated his apartment now.

He hated the brown feature wall in the living room because the colour reminded him of her eyes, of the way she'd looked at him the last time they'd made love so he painted over it.

He'd painted it back two days later.

He hated the mirrors on his bedroom walls and he'd hated even more the glass that had cut his feet after he'd smashed them all, before driving his fist into the dry wall.

When he'd noticed his shirt missing from the laundry that Charlotte had given him from Masen Hall, he drank half a bottle of scotch before he passed out, a copy of Wuthering Heights in his hand, the book open to a page where he'd highlighted the passage that had been haunting him for weeks.

_"Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! Only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! It is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!"_

* * *

**Six Weeks Later**

"Edward, I don't know why you just don't go and see her," Alice said from where she was lounging in the chair in front of his desk as he looked over paper work that had once served to free his mind of stress but now did nothing to help.

"Can we not talk about this?" he asked, dropping the paper work and standing. He made his way over to the bar in his office and didn't hesitate before pouring a glass of scotch which he downed in one mouthful.

"Rosalie told me she's not doing so well," Alice said, ignoring his request. She'd watched her cousin retreat into himself for weeks, refusing to even say her name, instead throwing all of his energy into the merging of the companies.

"You've been talking to Rosalie?" he asked, disbelieving. Up until recently, Alice had been adamant about the fact that she'd hated her sister-in-law, because of her choice of husband but mostly because of the way she'd treated Edward but now her brother was no longer around, she finally had a chance to reconcile with her mother.

Alice's face flushed and she looked away from him. "I've been getting to know Henry and Ethan."

"And gossiping about things you shouldn't," he snapped, running his hands through his hair and resisting the urge to pour another scotch.

"Rosalie said she's been pretty sick," his cousin continued and he groaned. He didn't want to hear this, that she was sick or well or…_moving on_.

He'd spent weeks running from the memories she'd given him, furious that they'd become the best ones he had. Hearing that she was sick almost broke his resolve.

Every day had been an exercise in resisting the urge to crawl back to her on his hands and knees and beg for her to forgive what he'd said to her. What was worse now was that he understood why she'd waited so long to come forward with the information she'd had about Senior, whose reputation was now in tatters with the realisation that he was not the charming and law abiding citizen people had believed he was. He understood now that she might have grown to love him in the week they'd spent together him but she hadn't trusted him, she'd barely known him and she'd spent years in a house where her sister was abused and her nephews reliant on her care.

And now it was too late.

"It's her birthday today," Alice said quietly, a sad smile on her face. "Go see her."

He shook his head and moved to look out of his office window at the Seattle skyline, his fists clenched at his side. "I can't, Alice."

His cousin sighed from behind him. "Then you need to move on, Edward."

He nodded but knew that wasn't a possibility because when Isabella Swan had walked away from him, she'd taken his heart with her.

* * *

**Fic Rec:**

**This fic rec is in two parts because it's easier to follow that way, although you can just read part two if you want.**

**The first part is a one-shot and the second is a full fic. It's underrated but I hope you like it as much as I do.**

**Part One:**

**Stars Fall Down by Chicklette.**

_**What if the Cullens weren't vampires? What if they were gods instead?**_

**Part Two:**

**And Yet They Shine by Chicklette.**

_**Isabella Swan is an ordinary girl, caught up in an extraordinary world. What if the Cullens weren't vampires? What if they were gods instead?**_


	32. Thirty One

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**The time jump is from the last time they saw each other and not from the last chapter.**

**See you again tomorrow!**

* * *

**Four Months Later**

Isabella sighed as she changed the channel. _Another freaking awards show_, she thought as she viciously clicked the remote in hopes of finding a channel not showing the red carpet that she didn't give a crap about. She groaned and tossed the remote to the end of the couch, where her sister sat sewing Halloween costumes for her sons.

Rosalie rolled her eyes at her sister's frustration before switching it back to the red carpet. "Suck it up," she said, sticking her tongue out at her little sister who just shook her head and picked the up the hot glue gun to stick the Hogwarts emblem on the cape that Henry insisted he needed.

_"__Oh, just look at all of the beautiful outfits we're seeing tonight!..."_ the announcer on the television said as they flashed from one of her sister's favourite singers wearing a gorgeous purple gown to the latest child-star-turned-singer who wore next to nothing. _"This is my favourite time of year seeing all of these talented people in one place…oh my god, here comes Tanya Denali, I just loved her newest single! Looks like the rumours are true about her and Edward Cullen as well."_

Both Isabella's and Rosalie's faces snapped up to the television. Her sister reached for the remote as soon as the couple came into view but Isabella shook her head to stop her. She'd seen the headlines in the tabloids for weeks and the pictures of the two of them together, the up and coming soul singer and the man taking the business world by storm.

Her stomach churned as she watched him smile at the strawberry blonde knockout, his arm around her waist as they stopped in front of the interviewer. _"Tanya, Edward! How lovely to see our new favourite couple tonight, how are you going?" _the interviewer asked, his voice loud and excited.

_"__We're doing just great,"_ Tanya said with a smile and Isabella's fists clenched at the sly smile she shot up at Edward, who smiled back at her.

_"__I understand that you've both just spent a romantic weekend in Sicily, is that right?"_

Tanya giggled, a fake girly giggle that made her want to throw up. _"You know I can't tell you that, Ryan."_

The interviewer threw his head back and laughed at her coy attitude but Isabella's eyes were trained on Edward's face. She hadn't seen him in four months, not since he'd told her to leave. Seeing his green eyes again did nothing to dispel the anger and sadness churning in her gut, his smile ruining the calm façade she'd become excellent at faking in their time apart.

_"__Have either of you seen the nickname the tabloids have given you? It's _so_ adorable!__"_ the interviewer asked with a wink.

_"__Oh, do share!"_ Tanya said with another fake smile. Isabella moved her head to face down into her lap at the logo that she'd nearly ruined, resisting the urge to flee the room.

_"__Beauty and the Beast!" _the interviewer exclaimed with a laugh.

_"__Just call me Belle!"_ Tanya exclaimed with a laugh that made both sisters wince.

While her sister had moved her eyes down so she wouldn't have had to look at the television, Rosalie hadn't missed the way that Edward flinched at the name.

* * *

"Sir, Rosalie King is here to see you," his receptionist, Kate, informed him over the intercom and he frowned, looking up from the paperwork that was littered over his desk. Fixing years of mistakes his cousin had made had become no easy feat.

"What?" he asked back rather dumbly. He hadn't seen Rosalie since he'd seen _her_ four months ago and he had no desire to see her now.

"She's refusing to leave until she speaks to you, Sir," Kate replied, sounding rather exasperated.

He groaned. "Send her in."

He stood and ran his hands through his hair, not bothering to put on the suit jacket that he'd tossed on the couch hours earlier, his tie discarded with it. He put his hands in his pockets and watched the door as Rosalie entered, looking nothing like the cold woman she'd been before that week months earlier.

Now she looked like a mother, her chinos and pale sweater making her look a hell of a lot warmer that she had before and she wore her hair down for the first time since he'd met her.

She closed the door behind her and strode through his office, the expression on her face turning from calm to pissed-off no sooner she noticed him standing by his desk. She dropped into one of the chairs in front of his desk and crossed her arms over her chest before giving him a glare that made him smirk because it reminded him of the old Rosalie.

"You need to sort your motherfucking shit out Cullen," she said bluntly.

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Mrs King, lovely to see you too."

"It's Swan, I changed it back, as well as my sons." She told him, her blue eyes examining him shrewdly.

"Good for you," he said, meaning it. He'd heard from Emmett that she'd seriously turned her life around in the past four months, seeing a therapist a few times a week and moving out of the estate her husband had died in.

"You look good," she said, malice in her tone.

"Is that a problem?" he replied, his hands fisting in his pockets.

"Yes it's a fucking problem," she hissed, standing up and throwing her arms up in exasperation. "It's a problem because you're out publically flaunting your fucking fantastic new girlfriend with the fake tits and the orange tan and my sister is too afraid to turn on the tv for fear of seeing the love of her life throwing his happiness in her face while she's at home barely holding it together."

His eyes turned cold and his face lost all trace of amusement. "Get out," he said, his voice low and icy.

"No, because you can't keep punishing her for doing something that you fucking _know _was right. It's not fair. She didn't see the way you flinched when your new _whatever_ said Belle. I know you used to call her Bella, she told me that," Rosalie said, smirking when he shuffled uncomfortably. "Don't act like you don't fucking miss her."

"Do you kiss your sons with that mouth?" he asked her, smirking at her fury. She needed to leave. And now. He couldn't handle hearing this, he couldn't even say her name, let alone hear someone else talk about her.

Rosalie glared and made her way to walk out of his office, turning back to look at him with her hand on the door knob. "You need to get your head out of your ass before it's too late Cullen and go and see her, or you're really going to fucking regret it."

He would have dismissed her words if not for the sad look in her eyes when she'd said them. He picked up the phone to dial Emmett as soon as she'd left.

* * *

Isabella walked through the park on her way back to the house she and her sister now lived in, the little cottage-type home that she'd talked about months earlier.

They'd bought it after she'd received her trust find nearly two months earlier, both beaming when they'd shown the boys their new home.

And as much as she'd wanted it, she hadn't felt the way she thought she would when she'd finally moved in, imagining stone walls instead of pale blue ones.

Sighing, she shook her head and continued on. She was exhausted, her training shifts at the local public school wearing her out more and more each day and she wondered how much longer she'd have until she had to give that up too.

She felt relief as she finally turned onto her street, telling herself that no matter how much of her trust fund she wanted to save, she would soon have to give in and buy a car. She'd need one soon anyway.

Her eyes trained on the concrete sidewalk beneath her feet, she missed the black Aston Martin parked in front of her house and the man leaning on it.

"Isabella," the sound of his voice made her freeze and she stopped where she was standing, her head whipped up to lock gazes with green eyes she hadn't seen in person in months.

His gaze moved quickly, zeroing in on the small bump beneath her maroon shirt with wide eyes before he moved his eyes back to hers.

"When the fuck were you going to tell me?"

* * *

**Fic Rec:**

**Holding On and Letting Go by Jenny0719.**

_**Masen Valley, SC. Population: 10,789. It was a tiny dot on a map; an escape of sorts for Bella Swan. But when circumstances bring a certain member of Masen Valley's founding family back to town, she finds that the past isn't as easy to leave behind as she thought it would be... Or let go.**_


	33. Thirty Two

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**I got nearly 200 reviews just last night! It was amazing hearing how angry you guys were at Edward.**

* * *

Neither of them had been prepared for the resounding sound of Isabella's hand as it made contact with Edward's cheek.

"You asshole!" she shouted after she pulled her hand back and began shaking it to force the sting away. "You don't get to do that! You don't get to come back after four months and get angry with me!"

His eyes widened as he took in her appearance, from the dark circles under her eyes to the hand she rested over the small bump of her stomach. He inhaled sharply and ran his hand through his hair haphazardly. "For fuck sake Isabella, you can't exactly expect me to be calm about this!"

"Stop _swearing!_ And I don't know why you're freaking out, you're not the one that's getting fat!" she hissed, glaring at him and resting a hand on her small bump. His gaze followed her movement and he swore under his breath. "You told me to leave and then you changed your phone number so you don't get to me angry at me right now. Or ever, really."

"When did you find out?" he asked, his eyes trained on her stomach with an expression of disbelief and something that looked a whole lot like wonder.

"About a month ago," she answered, smiling a little as she thought about the freak out following the little plus sign on the stick Rosalie had thrust in her hand after the third week in a row of vomiting up nearly everything she ate. "I would have called but…" she trailed off and pulled a face that made him look away to hide the guilt that flashed in his eyes.

"Why didn't you get rid of it?" he asked, no malice in his tone, just curiosity.

"I couldn't," she said biting her lip. "I mean, the timing's really horrible and you're kind of the biggest jerk in the world right now but I couldn't."

"Good," he said, surprising them both. In truth, he was relieved that she hadn't gotten rid of it, of _their baby_.

They stood in silence for a few moments, their eyes taking one another for the first time in months. "Why did you come Edward?" she asked softly as he raked his hand through his hair for the fifth time.

He pinched the bridge of his nose with his finger and his thumb. "Your sister came and saw me and I called Emmett," he said, looking sheepishly at her a moment before his demeanour changed to one of seriousness. "Look, Isabella-"

"You do not get to 'Look, Isabella' me right now Cullen, I'm pregnant and I'm hormonal and I do not have time for your crap right now, you got what you wanted, the company, your family's reputation and me gone, so I repeat: Why. Are. You. Here?" she demanded with one hand on her hip and an expression that almost scared the crap right out of him.

"You're having my baby, we have some stuff we need to sort out," he said simply.

"I'm having _our_ baby and we don't really have anything to sort out," she bit back, turning to walk up to the house. She needed a slice of cheese pizza and a packet of Oreos…and lasagne, she shouldn't have skipped lunch. "Was it worth it?" she asked, turning to look over her shoulder at him.

He tilted his head and raised his eyebrows in question. "The company, was it worth it all?"

"It was what I was born to do," he replied.

She smiled but there was no humour in it, trying not to sway on her feet, she was so tired. "Then you should probably get back to it," she said, continuing to walk away from him.

He grabbed her arm to stop her, dropping it as soon as she turned back around. "You have to marry me."

The next thing she registered was a pair of arms reaching for her as her knees crumbled beneath her, her vision turning black as she fell face-first into the concrete.

* * *

She woke up disoriented, blinking away the blank spots in her vision as she shifted in her…seat. She looked around, frowning when she realised she was in the passenger seat of Edward's car.

"What the hell Edward?" she asked, rubbing her eyes.

"You just fainted, I'm taking you to see a doctor," he stated as he drove them out of her neighbourhood and onto the freeway into the city.

She groaned. "It's low blood sugar," she explained, "I forgot to have lunch today."

He turned his face to look at her with an incredulous expression. "Are you sure?"

"Just go through a drive through and I'll be better in an hour," she said, picking up her phone to message her sister to tell her she wouldn't be home until later.

"You can't be serious," he said, giving her the side-eye. "That stuff is really fucking bad for you, not to mention the baby."

She glared at him. "You are not going to be that guy Cullen, so don't even think about it. If the baby wants a chocolate thickshake, the baby is getting a freaking chocolate shake."

"What do you want then?"

"I want pizza and lasagne _and_ chocolate cake." He laughed a little and nodded.

"I know just where to go."

* * *

She ignored his wide-eyed stare as she inhaled half of the menu of the most expensive restaurant she'd ever been to, enjoying the decadence of eating a meal she wasn't paying for, even if she was no longer poor.

"Have you had enough?" he asked as she finished off the best piece of chocolate cake she'd ever had.

She nodded and smiled sheepishly, picking up her napkin and wiping her mouth furiously. "So you think we should get married," she said, breaking the ice. It hadn't escaped her notice that he'd barely touched the carbonara he'd ordered.

"I do," he said, smiling and finishing his glass of wine.

"I'm still pissed at you," she said blunty.

"I know," he replied in the same tone.

"Your girlfriend probably would be okay with it," she sneered, wishing that she was still able to drink alcohol. Despite how charming he'd become in the past hour, it still hadn't changed the fact that she was furious at him.

He smiled at her crookedly, a wicked glint in his eye. "I don't have a girlfriend."

She chuckled darkly. "Does she know that?"

"Tanya is just an old friend. She's talented but she needed the publicity to take off," he explained and she nodded, but the anger refused to go away.

They remained in awkward silence for a few moments before he cleared his throat. He shifted nervously before his expression changed from borderline amusement to cool indifference. "I can't have my child growing up being a bastard. There are still people loyal to my grandfather's memory and I don't want any child of mine growing up with the crap I did. I just can't Bella," he said, slipping up and using her nickname.

Her heart clenched. He was sincere, she knew he was. She also knew better than anyone how the people in his social circles would act if they found out.

She only hesitated for a moment. "Okay."

His eyes widened in shock. "Really?"

She chuckled but there was no humour in it. "Look, Edward, I really don't like you right now and I'm so freaking angry but that shouldn't mean our baby has to grow up in two homes. I'll marry you but we really need to sort our stuff out. I'm not raising a child in an unhappy marriage, I won't be my parents."

He smiled and moved his hand in a gesture that made her believe that he was going to grab her hand but stopped himself. "Okay."

"I have a condition," she said. His smile dropped.

"What is it?" he asked, tension in the air.

She smiled sadly. "You need to talk to someone, about Royce and your father. I screwed up one time and you were ready to crucify me, that's not okay."

He clenched his fist on the table but nodded and she breathed out a sigh of relief.

"And you need to get rid of Tanya," she added, effectively breaking the tension as he let out a booming laugh that caught the attention of the guests around them.

He nodded and gestured with his hand for the check, handing the waiter a few bills before he stood up, opening his hand to help her out of her chair.

* * *

They didn't speak until they were back in his car and she noticed that they weren't on their way back to her house. "Where are we going?" she asked him.

He gave her the side eye and a half-smile. "Vegas."

* * *

**Relax, Bella isn't going to forgive him that easily!**

**Fic Rec:**

**Channel Five by planetblue. (One of my favourite one shots, you won't regret reading it!)**

_**A private plane. A velvet voice. A seduction miles above ground.**_


	34. Thirty Three

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**I stayed up until past four am writing this to try and help resolve some of your woes. Be nice to me.**

* * *

"No," she said bluntly, trying to reign in her anger towards the man who sat next to her with a cocky smile on his face. Who the hell did he think he was?

"What?" he asked, shocked both at her tone and the scathing look she was giving him.

"We are not going to Vegas," she hissed, throwing her hands up in exasperation. "You don't get to do that, to make decisions like that for me. I said I'd marry you but there's no way in hell I'm ready for that right now. Four months ago I might have been, but not after the way you've acted. I'm not a pushover Edward, not anymore."

He pulled the car over and they sat in silence as he ran his hands through his hair, looking anywhere but at her. "I don't know what the fuck I'm doing here anymore," he admitted and her expression softened a fraction.

"Neither do I," she replied. "But if it wasn't for my sister going to see you, you wouldn't have even shown up today Edward and two days ago another woman was hanging all over you on an international broadcast."

He nodded and leaned his head down to rest it on the steering wheel with his face turned towards her in a soft smile. "Tanya really is just an old friend you know, I swear nothing ever happened. You would be more her type than I am."

She laughed rubbed her forehead, ignoring her flaming red cheeks. "I was _so_ mad when I saw you on TV with her," she admitted softly. "Not because she was hanging all over you but because you guys were photographed together for over a month and I'd barely had a week with you. I was angry that she might know more about you than I did."

"She doesn't. No one does."

She turned to look at him, both of their eyes reflecting the misery they'd felt in their time apart and she thought about how easy it would be to forgive him, to tell him to pull back onto the road and fly them to Vegas…but she knew better.

"So you won't marry me?" he asked, fighting the urge to reach over and take her hand. It'd been too long since he'd felt his skin against hers.

"I will just…not yet," she said and he nodded.

"We need time. Both to get to know each other and get used to the idea of this," she said, gesturing to the small bump under her shirt.

"We used a condom every time," he said, thinking out loud.

She chuckled, thinking about how she'd thought the exact same thing until she'd been forced to go over every one of their sexual encounters after she'd peed on the pregnancy test. "The morning I left we didn't."

His face paled as it dawned on him; waking her up and taking her as the sun rose, not bothering to pull a condom from the bedside table. "Oh _fuck_, Bella. I'm a real fucking idiot."

"_Stop swearing!_" she hissed. "And you are an idiot, just for the record."

He laughed as she shoved him weakly, glad that she'd even touch him at all after the way he'd treated her. "What's with your sudden thing for swearing?" he asked.

She rubbed her tummy and smiled back up at him. "Smudge can't go to school swearing like a sailor."

"Smudge?" he asked softly, looking at her little bump with awe in his eyes.

She smiled affectionately, the expression on his face giving her hope that they might be okay. "When I had my twelve week ultra-sound, the baby looked like a smudge on the screen and name kind of just stuck. Although Emmett calls it Bilbo because I had to start eating two breakfasts to combat the morning sickness, Hobbit's have two breakfasts."

He laughed a little and then frowned at the fact that his friend already knew more about his unborn child than he did. "Do you have a picture?" he asked, desperately needing to see it, to prove that this was all _real _and not his imagination conjuring up a really twisted dream.

She nodded and smiled in understanding. "I have one back at the house. Take me home and I'll get you a copy."

He blew out a breath and nodded, starting the car and pulling them back onto the highway. They said nothing for a few minutes. "I'd like you to come live with me," he said quietly, not wanting to risk her anger for the tenth time today.

She grimaced. "I don't have a car and I don't really want to take the bus out to the school every day if I stayed in your building," she said apologetically, remembering what he'd said about owning an apartment across from Cullen Industries all those months ago.

He smiled at her as he changed gears. "I don't live there anymore. I sold the building a month ago and bought a house. It's only ten minutes away from where you live now," he admitted.

In truth, Edward had looked up the cottage type house she'd talked about in their week together and had bought his new home knowing that he would be in close proximity to her. He'd been waiting for weeks to accidentally run into her.

She said nothing, but was biting her lip so he knew that she was thinking about his offer. "Just give me a couple of weeks," she said. "I don't want to rush into this and have it blow up in our faces. I mean, up until a few hours ago, you didn't even want me in your life."

He winced, thinking about the way he'd spoken to her when he'd seen her and the shock and hurt that had flashed across her face in the moment before she'd slapped him. "You could always hit me again," he offered half-heartedly. He'd fucked up so much with her already, he didn't want to do it again, especially now that they were going to have a baby.

She smirked. "The next five months are going to be very hormonal Cullen. I just might."

"I'd deserve it," he said simply, thrusting them both back into memories about the way he'd acted. "I'll make an appointment tomorrow."

"Thank you," she replied.

* * *

They had remained silent throughout the rest of the car ride and she had watched his mind war with itself from the side of her eye the entire time.

"Thank you," she said as he opened the car door for her, thrusting his hands into his pockets as they walked up the stone path to her house. He'd disposed of his jacket and tie after they'd had dinner before he'd rolled up the sleeves of his white dress shirt and had undone the top two buttons. She tried not to notice her body's reaction to him but it was futile.

_Hormones._

She unlocked the front door and they made their way through the surprisingly spacious house. Unlike the cool open spaces of their previous residence, this house oozed warmth in everything from the childlike drawings on the walls to the two pairs of little galoshes by the front door.

"Cullen," her sister said as they moved into the kitchen where Isabella disposed of her school bag on the kitchen table where her sister was playing Disney Monopoly with Emmett, the boys had obviously gone to bed.

"Rosalie," he said back in the same tone and Isabella rolled her eyes at them, blushing as Emmett threw a wink in her direction.

"Hey Baby Daddy," Emmett said with a grin to Edward, who shook his head and muttered words she knew she would yell at him for saying out loud.

"We're going to talk in my room, Rose. Feel free to not eavesdrop," Isabella warned her sister as she grabbed Edward's hand and pulled him through the hallway and into a bedroom that was obviously hers.

She dropped his hand as soon as they entered and watched with flush cheeks as he took in her personal space, looking at everything from the tiny butterfly fairy lights that her nephews had bought her for her birthday to the well-worn spines of the books adorning her ikea shelf.

While he ran his fingers over the titles of the books, she plucked her second copy of Smudge's ultrasound picture from her bedside drawer. Her copy was in her diary and she pulled it out to look at it at least ten times a day. Her sister had made her scan the photo for the baby album that she'd started and she was thankful for it.

"Here," she said, handing him the photo.

He moved to sit on the bed as he looked down at the picture of their child, wonder and awe and fear flashing across his face, one right after the other. "Smudge," he said softly as he ran his finger over the spot that she'd been hard pressed to find when the doctor had first shown her.

"I think Smudge is a boy," she said, sitting beside him on the bed.

He looked up to smile at her, not bothering to hide the wet sparkle in his eyes. "No, I think it's a girl."

"I hope he has your eyes," she said, fidgeting with the hem of her shirt.

"I hope _she_ looks exactly like you," he bit back, nudging her with his shoulder and she looked up at him. They silently smiled at each other for a few moments before he stood, tucking the small picture into his pocket and pulling her to her feet.

"I should go," he says, looking down at his watch and she nods, resisting the urge to tell him to stay with her but knowing it would do more harm than good. She still hadn't forgiven him for what he'd done and the months they'd lost because of it. "Can I come see you tomorrow?" he asked, hope in his voice.

She nodded, tomorrow was a Saturday. "I'll be here."

He made his way out of her room and she walked him to the front door. He kissed her forehead before brushing a strand of hair away from her face. "I'll be over at nine," he said, dropping his hand away from her face and closing the front door behind him. She exhaled deeply and leaned against it, her heart racing.

She remained leaning against the door for a long time, her hand pressed against her stomach.

_I think we might be okay Smudge._

* * *

**Fic Rec:**

**The Affair by johnnyboy7 (I don't usually go for cheating fics but eh this one is the best)**

**After the death of her father, Isabella Swan moves to the East coast where she meets dentist Edward Cullen. He's older, a father, and married. Sometimes, you can't tell your heart who to love.**


	35. Thirty Four

**Disclaimer: I do no own Twilight.**

**There are about six chapters left at most, and I've finished uni for the year so I expect this fic will be complete within the next week or so.**

**Thank you for continuing to share your thoughts with me.**

* * *

**TANYA DENALI COMES OUT OF THE CLOSET**

**The 24 year-old singer/songwriter tells all in an exclusive interview.**

**_Tanya, we understand that you've previously hidden this part of your life, can you give us some insight into why you're just now 'coming out'?_**

_Well Gianna, up until recently, I hadn't even told my parents the way I felt about women. Growing up in a Catholic household, I've struggled for a long time trying to balance my religion and my sexuality. My decision to finally 'come out' has stemmed from the acceptance of my being a lesbian from both my parents and my closest friends._

**_Have you always identified as a lesbian?_**

_*Laugh* I've had boyfriends before, relationships with wonderful men that I'm still close friends with even today but I've never been attracted to a man sexually. It wasn't something I completely understood until the past few years where I was able to establish my identity outside of my family and my church._

**_Do you still identify as religious?_**

_Last year, Pope Francis said __"If someone is gay and seeks the Lord with good will, who am I to judge?" and that resonated within me. I am a Catholic, I believe in God and I still go to church every Sunday. It has taken me a long time to understand that loving women does not mean that I am a bad person._

**_Do you have someone special in your life now?_**

_I do._

**_Are you going to give us a name?_**

_*Shakes Head* I'm not._

**_Tanya, up until now we believed that you had been in a relationship with billionaire Edward Cullen, can you give us some insight into this?_**

_Edward has been one of my closest friends for a very long time and he played a huge role in finally confronting my parents about how I was feeling. Being photographed with me enabled me a little more freedom and it was an incredibly selfless thing for him to do considering that he's also been in a relationship for quite a while now. I owe him and his partner a great deal for their understanding and support._

**_Do you have any advice for any other men or women in your industry struggling with their sexuality?_**

_I'm not going to lie to you Gianna, if my parents had been uncomfortable with my sexuality I might not be having this interview with you now. I understand that every situation is different and that I was extremely lucky to have such accepting parents, friends and fans and I believe that coming to terms with and understanding your sexuality is just as, if not _more_ important than coming out publicly and I encourage people to talk to a professional if they're not yet ready to talk to their friends or family._

**Now we have even more questions for the pop star! Who is she dating? How was she able to hide this for so long? And who is her friend Edward Cullen's apparent partner?**

**See Tanya's full interview at 8pm on E!**

* * *

"Wow," Isabella said as she handed her sister back the iPad. She hadn't expected to be woken by Rosalie at seven am with the gossip page open but she had expected this even less.

"I know," her sister said, looking unsure whether to smile or bitch about him. And she hadn't even told her that she agreed to marry him yet. "I can finally listen to her music again. I told myself to ignore the epic beauty of her catchy tunes and now that we no longer hate her I can continue my karaoke in the car."

She smiled at her big sister. "We never hated her."

Rosalie scoffed. "_I_ wasn't the one who drew horns and a beard on her picture in the magazine on the kitchen table."

Isabella blushed. She had been the one to draw on the singer's face after a particularly bad day of hormones and headlines. "Go away, it's too early for your crap."

Her sister left the room with a sly smile and Isabella groaned, dropping back down on the bed and fingering the hem of Edward's shirt. While it had long since lost the smell of him, the feeling of warmth and comfort she had always gotten from wearing it had never ceased.

She closed her eyes and thought about what her sister had just shown her the words_ he's also been in a relationship for quite a while now _both scared her and set her heart on fire.

It had been hell being in his presence the night before, being in such close proximity to him and not touching him. Despite the months apart and her ever-present anger, her need for him hadn't lessened at all. If anything, her body craved him more than it had in that week in July, the hormones from her pregnancy often causing her to wake up in the middle of the night with a racing heart and her hand down her panties with thoughts of their bodies entwined flashing through her mind.

She rubbed her eyes and got up from the bed, stumbling to the bathroom.

She showered and washed her hair, grateful that her heightened sense of smell had yet to reject the scent of her body wash, she'd already ordered her sister to stay the hell away from the Chanel perfume she'd worn since she'd turned twenty-one.

She was even more pleased that the baby had seemed to like the scent of Edward's cologne as much as she had.

She stepped out from the stall and wrapped a towel around her body. She grabbed her brush and hair dryer from under the bathroom cabinet and looked up at her reflection, startled that the shadows under her eyes seemed lighter than they had in over a month.

She fingered the faint purple marks under her eyes with a sigh. "What are you doing to me Edward Cullen?"

* * *

He'd been standing outside of the house for fifteen minutes. He'd hadn't slept, having spent the entire night reading pregnancy books on his e-reader, his anxiety increasing more and more with each page.

Pregnancy wasn't the perfect miracle of birth he'd been led to believe his entire life. There were so many risks and rules and he didn't know what the hell he was doing.

But the picture she'd given him, the picture of Smudge had kept him calmer than the glasses of scotch he had needed to drink before bed in the past four months in order to get to sleep and he found himself unable to stop staring at the sonogram, even as the sun seeped into his bedroom.

He'd loved the little spot as soon as he'd seen it, as soon as he'd seen Bella rubbing her hand over the small bump the way he wished he could. Nothing had warmed him more than the fact that it would be as much her child as it would be his and after he'd thrown his e-reader across the room, he'd spent the rest of the night thinking about a little girl with Bella's eyes and his hair, praying that Smudge would be as beautiful as her mother.

He just needed to convince Bella that he was in this eight hundred percent and to convince her that she still loved him, that he was _worth_ loving.

There wasn't anything he wouldn't do to get her back, to have them both in his life.

Running his hands through his hair one last time, he leaned over to knock on the door only to have it thrown open less than a second later by someone he had to look down to see.

Wide, blue eyes on a young face stared back up at him.

"You're _here!_" the little boy shouted in glee, showing Edward a wide smile that reminded him a lot of Rosalie.

Henry, he realised as he took in the blonde hair and the bright Captain America shirt.

He kneeled in front of the boy and held out his hand, smiling when the boy reached out to shake it. "I'm Edward," he said.

The boy giggled. "I know dat! You're gunna take us to da zoo!"

Edward's eyes raised in surprise and confusion. "I'm what?"

He heard a small laugh and looked up to see Rosalie standing in the doorway dressed in scrubs and wearing a sly smile. "I need your keys Cullen," she said.

He stood up and frowned, suspicious of her smile. "Why?"

"Do you have kid's car seats in your Aston Martin?" she inquired, giving him the bitch brow.

He swallowed and looked down to the little boy still smiling up at him. "No."

"Then give me your keys," she said, opening out her hand and grinning when he placed them in her hand, suddenly frightened for his Vanquish.

"Don't hurt her," he said, praying that she wouldn't harm his favourite car.

A soft giggle from behind Rosalie washed away all worry for his vehicle and he looked around her to see Bella standing in the hallway with another little boy on her hip and a grin on her face that took his breath away.

"Hey," he said, suddenly feeling shy. He hadn't even noticed that Rosalie had said goodbye to her sons and was making her way out of the house.

"Hey," she said, smiling back at him and he forgot about the fact that he was exhausted and scared as hell, all he could think about was how beautiful she looked holding that baby and that he couldn't wait until he could finally see her hold theirs.

* * *

**Fic Rec:**

**The Selkie Man by DarkBlueBella **  
_**A summer studying Scottish folktales leads to Bella Swan meeting a stranger unlike anyone she has ever met. Can she let herself believe that myth and legend might also be reality?**_

**I think my favourite kind of fics are the ones when Bella finds something she didn't know she needed. This one, like Ethan Church is one of those fics that change Bella's ordinary life into the extraordinary.**


	36. Thirty Five

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**There might be an update tomorrow but if not then definitely the day after.**

**Reviews are love!**

* * *

"Do you know how the hell to drive this thing?" he asked as she buckled the boys into their car seats, laughing when she looked up to find him glaring at Rosalie's 'mom car'.

"Relax, I've got this," she said, pulling out her sisters keys and motioning for him to get into the passenger seat. He did as she said and she held back another laugh when she started the car, the radio turning onto to play the Disney CD her nephews couldn't live without.

"What is this?" he complained as she pulled out of the drive way and onto the street.

"It's Olaf!" Henry shouted from the backseat before joining in to sing about snowmen in summer.

"Olaf!" Ethan echoed, followed by baby babble that no one but Rosalie seemed to understand.

He shook his head and looked to her, narrowing his eyes when he saw her smirk. "It's the Frozen soundtrack," she explained. "Kids love this kind of thing."

"Well our kid is going to have to learn to love Debussy," he quipped back and she snorted at him.

"You listen to _Debussy_ in the car? That's actually embarrassing Cullen. What are you like eighty?"

His cheeks flushed. "What would you prefer our child listen to?" he asked.

"Tanya Denali," she replied before thinking and he turned to look at her, though she refused to meet his eyes.

"You read her article?" he asked and she nodded. "What did you think?"

She inhaled unsteadily. "I think I owe her a hug but I think you owe her a really expensive car, or a house. She was extremely brave to do that."

He nodded in agreement. "She'll love you."

"I'm incredibly lovable," she quipped back with a chuckle.

"You are," he agreed.

Her heart froze and her face flamed. "You can't say things like that Edward," she whispered, her voice sad and angry at the same time.

The rest of the ride was spent in silence.

* * *

She tried not to look shocked as Edward agreed to allow Henry to sit on top of her shoulders halfway through their time at the zoo, but the surprise must have been written plainly on her face because Edward poked his tongue out at her and held Henry's little hands in his as they strolled along.

Henry had asked in the car about Edward's face and much to her ex-lover's credit he hadn't skipped a beat before informing her nephew that he'd been attacked by a wild squirrel when he'd been a little boy.

Henry's gasp in surprise had been comical and Edward continued to answer his questions about the wild squirrel for the next twenty minutes.

It tugged at Bella's heart that Henry might find out one day about the monster his father had been and the people he had hurt, including Rosalie. It wasn't going to be easy to learn about Royce and she prayed that she would have a long time to worry about it.

"Dat one is my favourite!" Henry shouted as they stopped in front of the brown bear enclosure, pointing at the creature sleeping in the shade of a large tree.

"Why is it your favourite?" Edward asked as they stepped closer to the cage, the both of them watching the bear with matching smiles. Her heart skipped at the sight. She hadn't meant to snap at him in the car but his words had angered her. She might have wanted nothing more than to hear them four months ago but now she couldn't risk falling back down into the rabbit hole.

"Because Brother Bear is da _bestest_ movie! Aunty Isa got it for my birfday," he explained and Edward beamed at the child-like reasoning.

"Your Aunt Isa is really nice to have done that," Edward replied with a sly glance at her as they moved on to the next animal and she looked down at Ethan, babbling away in his pram, distracting herself by watching his cute smile rather than the man who was tugging at her heartstrings.

* * *

"I'm sorry about what I said earlier, on the way there," he told her as they drove back to her house, this time with her in the passenger seat, the boys both sleeping heavily in their car seats, worn out by the morning's excitement.

She turned her face to look at him, her eyelids heavy with sleep from the hours of walking. "I don't know what to say to you, even now I still can't believe that you're here."

He grimaced and she noticed that his fists tightened their hold on the steering wheel. "Why are you letting me back into your life so easily Bella?" he asked. "I was gone for _four months_. I changed my phone number, I was in a public albeit false relationship for almost two of those and you've let me get away with a slap and a few minutes of shouting."

She turned to look away from him, a frown on her face. "You were so angry with me. I saw the way you looked at me, how much you _hated _me because of what I'd done and I called but…And then you changed your number and I stopped feeling sorry for myself because I had done the right thing. I was protecting them," she said, motioning to the sleeping children in the back of the car and wiping a tear from her eye. "And I don't regret it because they're happy and my sister's healthy and free and they're young enough that they'll hardly remember the monster Royce was. I wanted you more than I wanted anything else, but not at the cost of them."

He pulled the car to a stop and she looked up to realise they had arrived at her house and she looked up to find his head resting on the steering wheel, his shoulders shaking a little.

She said nothing for a few moments, her hands resting on her small bump and her eyes burning from trying to blink away tears. She nearly gasped when he turned his head to face her, his eyes shiny with unshed tears.

"I didn't sleep for weeks after I made you leave," he whispered, his voice hoarse. "I couldn't eat. I couldn't do anything but think about how stupid I'd been and by the time I realised that I shouldn't have been angry with you it had already been so long and I thought that you'd hate me and I couldn't stand to see you look at me like that, like everyone else does. It's so fucking stupid now that I think about it but I was just trying to save my own ass because I didn't want to face my feelings for you and Bella, I am so _sorry_. You have no idea how much I regret it and I will happily spend the rest of my life making it up to you."

Tears fell from both of their eyes as he spoke and her shoulders shook with the force of her sobs. Her eyes were so full of tears that she didn't even see him lean over to undo her seat belt, but her sobs subsided as he pulled her over the gear box to hold her in his lap, much like they had on their last morning together.

Only this time, he had one arm wrapped around her and another resting over the bump where their child rested. "I'm sorry," he whispered into her hair, over and over until they too fell asleep.

* * *

Edward woken by a tap on the windscreen, his body jerking as he was pulled from sleep by the sound. He looked up to see Rosalie walking around to the back of the car where her sons still slept, pulling Ethan from his car seat and gently rousing Henry, who followed his mother on shaky legs into the house, rubbing his eyes.

Edward looked at his watch and realised that they'd slept for the past hour, his body stiff from the position as Bella remained asleep in his arms. "Bella," he whispered, gently shaking her. He smiled when she woke with a start, her eyelids swollen and her cheeks flushed as she met his gaze.

"We fell asleep," he explained and she nodded, her cheeks flushing brighter. She pulled away from him to climb back across to the passenger side of the car, grabbing her bag before she opened the door.

He pulled the keys from the ignition and walked around to the side of the car that she was leaning against, her eyes half closed and her legs shaky. He smiled and scooped her up into his arms, carrying her bridal style into the house. She only protested for a moment before she wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face into his chest.

He ignored Rosalie's what-the-fuck look as he carried Bella into her bedroom, taking a moment to pull down her covers before he lowered her to her mattress. She sighed as soon as her head hit the pillow, looking up at him with tired eyes and a soft smile before she grabbed his hand and pulled him down to lay next to her.

They said nothing for a few minutes, staring at each other with tired but bright eyes. "I missed you," he whispered after a while had passed. In the soft light of her bedroom, he felt braver than he had in the past four months. "So much, Bella."

She reached up to run her fingertips over his scars, his eyes closing with relief and bliss at the feeling he never thought he'd feel again. "I missed you too and when I saw Smudge for the first time I was so happy, not because I was having a baby but because I got to keep a piece of you."

"I'm so sorry," he choked out, placing a hand on her bump. "To think that I could have missed out on having this, on having both of you. I never would have forgiven myself."

She smiled softly and pulled him toward her, wrapping her arms around his neck and resting her head against his chest, smiling as the familiar beat lulled her back to sleep. "We're gonna be okay," she whispered before falling into unconsciousness.

He followed soon after, feeling whole for the first time in months.

* * *

Rosalie sat at the kitchen table with her sons, colouring pictures from the books she'd bought home for them when Edward stumbled from her sister's bedroom, his hair a mess and sleep in his eyes. Fear and apprehension flashed in his eyes as he made his way into the room, his hands in his pockets.

"Bella's still asleep. I left her a note but can you tell her that I have a dinner with Alice tonight that I couldn't get out of," his pleading eyes shattered the last of her malice for the man she used to think he was and she nodded, hugging her son tighter into her chest.

She'd seen the way they'd been asleep in her car, the way his hand rested protectively over his unborn child and the way he'd looked at her sister. She hadn't forgiven him, not by a long shot, but it was hard to continue hating the man who was so obviously in love with her sister, even if he had fucked up so thoroughly.

"I'll tell her," she promised and he smiled at her, relief in his eyes. She motioned to where his keys were and smiled as he said goodbye to each of her sons before he walked out of the door.

_Please make my sister happy again, _she prayed as she heard his car pulling away, before grinning at the thought of him finding out that she'd reprogrammed all of the pre-set radio stations in his car to play children's songs.

Revenge was sweet.

* * *

**Fic Rec:**

**Business Casual by WhatsMyNomDePlume.**

_**The lines between boss and employee, human and immortal, hero and damsel, coworker and lover, and right and wrong are about to become very blurry for Edward and Bella.**_


	37. Thirty Six

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**Reviews are love!**

* * *

It was the next afternoon before he was able to pull himself away from work. He new that he'd need to work hard in the next five months to be able to pull back his work load when Smudge was born; he refused to let his work get in the way of his relationship with his child the way his father had.

He'd thought about his father a lot in the past three days, since he'd discovered that Bella was pregnant with his child and the more he thought about it, the sadder and angrier he became. He hadn't understood the love his parents had shared - hadn't understood why losing his mother had also resulted in the loss of his father – until Bella.

But even the thought of losing her didn't override his need to be a good father and that he couldn't forgive.

He knew that even if something were to happen for her, he would love and care for their baby until his last breath, that he'd dedicate his entire life to making their baby feel happy and loved.

"What're you doing out here?" a voice asked behind him and he turned to find Bella standing on the porch beside him, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders and a concerned look in her eye as she took in his appearance.

He realised how he must have looked to her – he'd spent half the night awake and most of the day with his head buried in mountains of paper work, looking down at his jeans and shirt he realised that he hadn't even changed out of yesterday's clothes or showered in his haste to see her.

"Sorry," he grinned sheepishly, his face flushed. "I haven't really slept yet."

She frowned and drew closer to him, catching one of his hands in her own and lifting it to her mouth, he sighed as the warmth of her hand swept through him. "You're freezing."

"I've been out here a while," he admitted, entwining their fingers and squeezing her hand.

"Why?"

"Just thinking."

"About?" she pressed.

He smiled. "You."

She flushed and smiled back shyly. "Come inside," she said, tugging his hand.

He followed her into the house and they stopped in the living room where he saw that Emmett was playing a video game with Henry and Rosalie was lounged in a plush recliner, Ethan in her lap as she read to him.

The sight before him both shocked and amused him. Watching Emmett - the friend who had never once shown any sign or desire to settle down – play with a child and look at a woman with more than lust and Rosalie, well he had never expected her to be more than the icy, cruel woman he had once known. Watching her interact with her sons was like watching a whole new person and he realised then, as she smiled up at Emmett, that she _was_ a new person.

"Come sit," Bella said softly, pulling him over to the love seat where she encouraged him to sit, taking the blanket off of his shoulders before sweeping out of the room.

"Edward!" Henry exclaimed as he turned to see him and Edward smiled in returned, grateful that some feeling was finally coming back to his cold body.

"You look like you haven't slept in days, Cullen," Rosalie said, peering at him over Ethan's head, concern flashed in her eyes.

"Sleep evaded me in the wake of the horror that has become my car stereo," he replied with a glare.

Rosalie beamed and his glare faltered, noting the how much she looked like her sister now that she was no longer influenced by her husband – or drugs.

"That's what you get for leaving my baby sister high and dry," she quipped back with a smirk.

"_Rosalie!_" Bella hissed as she entered the room again, a steaming mug in her hand and a glare on her face. She shook her head and moved across the room to hand him the mug filled with at least ten miniature marshmallows.

She sat down beside him, pulling at the blanket so that it was draped over the both of them and smiled at him as he took a sip of the drink.

His eyes widened as the taste of chocolate and marshmallows hit his tongue. "If diabetes had a taste, this would be it," he told with a smile as he set down the drink on the coffee table.

She winced and smiled shyly. "It's the pregnancy," she explained. "I forget that not everyone is prepared to triple their sugar intake in one sitting."

"I think I can forgive you," he replied, smiling at her softly.

"That's all I can hope for," she said quietly and he understood right away the double meaning in her words.

He took her hand then, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles and her bare ring finger. "Go put a jumper on, I want to take you to my house. There's something I want to show you."

* * *

Bella admired the house as they pulled up the drive way, the tree lined road reminding her much of Masen Hall and her breath literally caught in her throat as the house came into view.

Nestled deep in the trees, the large multi-storied house seemed to belong there, the dark wood and huge glass windows blending perfectly with the greens and browns of the property.

"Do you like it?" he asked as they parked, killing the engine and turning to watch her.

She turned her face and smiled at him, her eyes bright. "It's perfect."

Her awe increased as they made their way into the house, enjoying the high ceilings and warmth that seemed to settle deeper and deeper into her being with every glance.

With a promise to give her a tour after dinner, he took her hand and led her into a large room, a gasp of shock falling from her lips as she realised that the entire back wall was made of glass and that it gave the perfect view of the sun setting over the white tipped mountains in the distance.

Looking around, she realised a fire was lit and that in front of it was a large plush rug, on which were at least ten different pillows. "Come on," he said, tugging at her hand and leading her to the spot she'd just been looking at.

He sat down and she followed, both of them sitting cross legged beside one another as he pulled over a large cardboard box that she hadn't noticed beforehand. "What's all of this?" she asked as he pulled a large leather-bound from the box and handed it to her before opening it.

The book opened to a page where an aged photograph of a stunning woman sat. "That is my mother, Esme Cullen," he told her. She looked closer then, noticing that the woman's hair and eye colour were identical to the man sitting next to her and that like him, her smile was a little crooked. Warmth radiated from the woman and Bella's heart tugged in her chest as she thought about the way the woman's life had been cut short so suddenly. Her heart broke for the mother Edward never really had.

She released a slow breath and traced her fingers over the rose gold necklace the woman was wearing, the same one that Bella now wore. "She's beautiful."

"She was," Edward said and she could hear the smile in his voice as he turned the page where another photo of Esme Cullen was, only this time she looked exhausted and unbelievably happy, staring down at a baby bundled in a pale blue blanket.

"Oh wow," she said, looking up at him.

He smiled at her and nodded. "Alice has had all of this stuff in her attic for years, I picked it up last night," he explained, reaching into the box again and shuffling some things around. "I hated looking at it before, it just reminded me of everything I'd lost."

"And now?"

"And now I understand why my father broke down emotionally. You can see it in every single photo how much he loved her, she was his soul mate." He told her with a sad smile, pulling something else from the box. "When she died, she took his heart with her."

"But mostly I just needed to get this," he said, opening the small box and pulling out a small and shiny object that sent her heart racing.

He moved to sit in front of her, grabbing her left hand and sliding a ring onto _that_ finger. She stared down at the platinum ring and the large, oval shaped diamond that sat in the middle of it, tears in her eyes as she looked back up at him. She was shocked to find his emerald eyes shining with unshed tears as well.

"I know I mess up a lot, and I can't promise that I won't mess up again but I can promise that I will spend every single day of my life making you happy," he moved one of his hands to rest on her bump. "Making _both_ of you happy."

She gave him a watery smile and moved to wrap her arms around his neck, grateful when he pulled her until she was sitting in his lap, her head pressed against his chest and his chin resting on top of her head, warmth radiating through her body.

"I love you, Bella," he whispered as he held her. "I love you so much."

* * *

**We're not quite at the end yet, so don't get upset if some things have been left unanswered or they've not been mentioned enough.**

**Fic Rec:**

**Working Relationship by TBandJelly (this hasn't even got 100 reviews, even though it's just a one shot and I felt like it should be loved by more people!)**

_**Bella, a fledgling lawyer, has better luck in a courtroom than with men. Enter the hottie in the pricey suit who offers to pay double her going rate, and he's not talking legal fees. The pair find themselves deep in a compensation-based misunderstanding until a few months later when she realizes she may be in love with her one and only regular.**_


	38. Thirty Seven

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**Reviews are love!**

* * *

Her fingers shook as she held the champagne glass filled with water, her eyes raked across the room as she looked for the one man she'd spotted a few times but the one who had yet to approach her.

She couldn't find him.

Edward had invited her to this event two weeks ago, the day after he'd given her his mother's engagement ring. She looked around at the over the top splendour and she found it more than annoying how much money the wealth of the world spent on charity events.

She shuffled her weight to her right leg, grateful that she'd been able to convince her sister to let her wear flats beneath the long, off-white Grecian gown that had cost her more than any other piece of clothing she'd ever worn. She liked the way the dress sat and the way the deep v highlighted the rose gold necklace that she'd refused to take off and the bump was just visible beneath it.

She also couldn't wait to see Edward's face when he saw it.

She'd been standing in the same spot for more than an hour, catching glimpses of bronze hair and green eyes, disappointed that they were never turned in her direction.

Her heart sank in her chest and she gripped her glass tighter, wishing that it was filled with alcohol. She looked around again and sighed. She seemed to have attracted everyone'd attention but his this evening, couple after couple making their way over to introduce themselves, admiring both her ring and her bump.

There had been an announcement in the newspaper the day after he gave her the ring, both announcing their engagement and the expectance of their first child.

The week after the announcement had been wonderful. They'd spent time together every day, getting to know one another in all of the ways they hadn't been able to at Masen Hall and Bella had discovered that even if she hadn't have spent that week alone with him seducing her, that she would have simply liked him as a person.

He spent time with both her and her family, spending night having dinner at their house with Emmett who had become a permanent fixture in their lives over the past couple of months. Her nephews adored Edward, loving the extremely loud toys that he had given them to exact his revenge on Rosalie for his car stereo. They'd also spent time with Alice and Jasper who had become more involved in the lives of Henry and Ethan since their father's death and both Bella and Rosalie had found themselves enjoying having another woman in their lives.

For the first time in her life, she finally felt like she had a family and she had Edward to thank for it.

He hadn't told her that he loved her since the night they'd spent in his living room by the fire and she had yet to say it back. It wasn't that she didn't love Edward. She did. She loved him so much that her heart ached whenever he wasn't around and threatened to push through her rib cage when he was. But loving him didn't push the fear from her mind.

He'd become almost a completely different man since she'd met him, had finally allowed himself to start feeling again after years of being emotionless and ruthless but it still didn't stop the nagging feeling deep in her mind telling her to be careful because she knew while he loved her, it hadn't stopped him from sending her away before.

It also hadn't helped that this past week something had changed. She'd only seen him twice, where he'd been jumpy and both times had taken calls for most of the time before eventually leaving early with an apologetic smile. While they had yet to kiss again since their reunion, his shy but frequent touches had all but disappeared and when he'd asked her the last time he'd seen her to spend the night at his house after the event, she was starting to wonder why he'd even bothered.

She wondered if it was because she hadn't told him that she loved him yet.

"Isa," Rosalie said softly, pulling her attention from her doubts to where her sister and Emmett had approached. Her sister looked stunning in a rose pink gown, her hair newly dyed to her natural light brown resting in soft curls over one shoulder, highlighting the diamond earrings that Emmett had given her for her birthday the week before.

He'd confided in Bella that he'd wanted to give her a ring, that ring, but knew that she wasn't ready, that she was still developing an outside of her toxic marriage.

"Hey," she said, giving a half-hearted smile.

Her sister frowned, walking over to her side and giving her a one-armed hug. "You okay?"

Bella smiled and nodded, but they both knew it was fake. "Yeah, just a bit tired. And hungry. I'm really freaking hungry," she laughed. While finger food may have sufficed for the rest of the guests, it had barely made a dent in her pregnancy hunger.

Emmett chuckled, winding his arm around her sister's waist. She melted into him and a small fissure appeared in Bella's heart watching them. She wanted that, wanted Edward back.

"I once ate twenty cheeseburgers in one sitting," Emmett admitted and she laughed-snorted, knowing that it was completely true, the man could eat a house.

"When I was pregnant with Henry I was down in Portland visiting some girls from college and I finished Skyline Burgers' Quadzilla Challenge. It was legendary," Rosalie told him with a wide smile.

Emmett's eyes widened with shock and awe. "Are you kidding?"

"That was possibly the best and worst thing I'd ever seen in my life," Bella told him, thinking about her sister's sauce covered face when she'd finished the titanic meal.

"What was?" a voice inquired and she turned her head to find Edward coming up beside her. She smiled and sighed in relief when she saw his face.

"My sister doing the quadzilla burger challenge in Portland," Bella told him, sinking in to his body as he wrapped an arm around her waist.

"Pictures or it didn't happen," Edward told Rosalie with a half-smile. Rosalie rolled her eyes but nodded, taking Emmett's hand and pulling him over to the bar.

"Hey," she whispered as they walked away, smiling up at him. "I've missed you."

He smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry, there's been a lot of schmoozing tonight."

"Hmm," she said nodding, draining the rest of her glass.

He pulled away then and took the glass from her hand, passing it on to a waiter and taking her hands in his. "I know I haven't seen you a lot this week and I'm sorry, I have to see a few more people but then we can go home. We'll get some food on the way, I saw you glaring at the finger food before," he promised, smiling at her in a way that made her forget about his absences both during the week and this event.

"Okay," she agreed, smiling up at him, hope blooming in her chest.

He smiled at her, flashing teeth before he was gone again. She watched him as he made his way to the second floor of the ballroom, disappearing behind a door. She frowned and made her way to the bathroom, praying that the horrible feeling she had deep in her stomach would go away.

The ladies room was empty when she entered and she cursed herself for needing to pee almost every hour now. She entered a stall and did her business, jumping in shock as the bathroom door opened, followed by the sounds of heels clicking against the tile.

"Did you see Cullen tonight?" one of the women asked and Bella's eyes widened as she listened in, her heart almost pounding out of her chest. "I have to admit, he's been looking a whole lot hotter now that his portfolio has doubled."

Another one of the women laughed. "Believe me honey, I've had him before and the money doesn't even matter when a man knows how to use a cock like he does."

Bella wanted to vomit.

"I'll have to give him a try," the other woman replied.

"Didn't you hear that he's engaged now? Knocked up Rosalie's kid sister and now he's stuck with the mousy little thing."

She opened the door before she could stop herself, making her way over to the sink where the two women were applying makeup. Bella recognised both of them on sight as women her sister was once friends with and enjoyed when their eyes widened with recognition and embarrassment.

"Chelsea, Jane," she said as she washed her hands. "I dare you to go near my fiancé. I dare you to try and suck his cock because even if you succeed or don't, I know that my sister has so much dirt on the both of you that there won't be a chance of either of you sucking _anybody's_ cock when you're done."

She then exited the bathroom so calmly that she even surprised herself.

The euphoria of getting the upper hand on the women in the bathroom lifted her spirits as she made her way over to the bar where her sister stood with Alice and for the first time all evening she was enjoying herself.

"You look better," her sister observed as she handed her a glass of orange juice.

"I feel better," she replied.

"Would my cousin have something to do with you not feeling good?" Alice enquired, sipping on a martini.

Bella frowned and leaned against the bar. "He's been a little busy this week. I haven't seen him much," she admitted.

Alice smiled sympathetically. "It's been a little hectic with the merger, things should calm down soon."

"I hope you're right," she said.

They talked between them for a few minutes, laughing over the horrible baby names Emmett had suggested in the past week and Bella felt some warmth flooding back into her chest.

"Hey, there's Edward," Alice pointed out and both Bella and Rosalie followed her line of sight to see Edward coming out of the door he had entered earlier.

He wasn't alone.

"Oh my god," she heard her sister whisper.

A small but beautiful woman stood in front of him and the fissures in Bella's heart became cracks as she watched him laugh with her before he embraced her.

The glass in her hand shattered when the woman raised her hand to stroke his cheek, his _scarred_ cheek. The one that no one but her had been able to touch. Her heart broke when she realised that he hadn't even flinched.

"Isa!" her sister exclaimed as broken glass fell to the floor, blood dripping from her hand to stain her white dress.

Her sister picked up her hand and inspected the cut. "You're going to need stitches."

Bella looked up to see Edward coming down the stairs, a wide smile on his face as he scanned the crowd and she turned to Alice. "I need to get out of here, can you…can you go and distract him while I get out?"

Alice smiled at her and nodded. Bella looked down at her hand then, noting the steady blood flow and her stomach turned, her vision becoming blurry with dizziness.

She barely registered arms wrapping around her as she fell to the floor.

* * *

**More to come tomorrow, be patient and don't worry!**

**Long Distance by LyricalKris &amp; myonlyheroin**

_**Everyone knows about the dangers of the Internet, the liars and the creepers. But friendship can spark there and so can love. Edward and Bella met and fell despite the distance, but though his feelings were true, not everything he said was. A collab with myonlyheroin.**_


	39. Thirty Eight

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**This is the last chapter guys. Tomorrow will be the epilogue.**

* * *

"Can you please just take me home?" Bella asked, glaring at her sister as Emmett parked his car outside of Edward's house.

Jasper had caught her as she'd fainted, the sight of blood making her feel even more lightheaded in combination with her pregnancy. Emmett had met her and her sister at the hospital, refusing to come in the room while the doctor stitched her hand up, but had insisted in driving the girls back home. Her sister had other ideas.

"You need to talk to him. I know what you saw tonight but I've seen the way he looks at you, Isa. He would _never_ do that to you," her traitor sibling said, turning around in her seat to meet Bella's glare.

"I don't want to be here. I don't want to see him. I just want to go home."

Rosalie rolled her eyes and groaned, "Get out of the car, Isabella."

Bella huffed but did as her sister asked, crying out in frustration as the car pulled away as soon as she'd closed the door. "_Assholes._"

She shivered in the cold air, biting her lip but made her way up the front steps. She stood there for a few moments, debating using her key to get in and grab the overnight bag her sister had left here earlier in the day or just to pull out her phone and call a cab.

The front door opened then, taking her choice of the cab away. Charlotte stood in the doorway, smiling at her warmly. She hadn't seen the woman in the past week and was more than grateful that she wouldn't have to be alone with the man she wanted to punch in the jaw.

"Miss Swan! What are you doing out here in the cold?" the woman asked, pulling her into the house.

She smiled without humour. "My sister abandoned me."

"Well we all know how that turned out last time," the woman smirked although her gaze quickly turned to horror as she spotted the blood on her white dress. "_What happened_?"

Bella smiled sheepishly and held up her bandaged hand. "Broke a glass."

Charlotte shook her head. "How did that happen?"

"Ask your boss," she said. "Do you know where my bag is?"

"I have it," Edward said, standing in the archway leading to the large living room, looking way more attractive than Bella wanted and she hated her body for reacting to it, especially when it had been more than four months since he'd even touched her body with sexual intent.

Her eyes hardened and she leveled him with a glare that should have made his head explode. "Where is it?"

He said nothing, just turned and walked away, leaving her with wide eyes and an open mouth. Who the fuck did he think he was?

She followed, silently fuming as they made their way upstairs. He stopped outside a room she had never entered, turning to face her. Her fingers itched to slap his face…or run her hands though his hair. Blushing at the thought, she turned her head away from him, her jaw clenched.

"Look at me," he demanded.

She ignored him.

"Look at me, Bella," he said softer.

She turned her head to face him and almost gasped as she was met with soft eyes and a small smile that nearly broke her resolve to stay angry at him.

"I saw you with her," she whispered, wishing it wasn't true, that she hadn't seen a random woman touch him so intimately, that he hadn't smiled at her softly in return, that he hadn't flinched at the contact.

His face dropped and guilt flashed in his eyes, making her chest hurt. "It wasn't what you think Bella," he said quietly.

Her eyes watered. "I spent more on this dress than I've spent on any piece of clothing my entire life. I bought this dress and let my sister do my hair and my makeup and I felt beautiful for the first time in months and you weren't even looking. You didn't even say anything. You invited me to the event and then ignored me for all of five minutes and you didn't say _anything_."

He opened his mouth to reply but she cut him off. "And then you left, went up to a room with her and I had to watch her touch you. She touched your scars and you didn't even flinch. Do you know how that felt? Watching her touch you when that was all I wanted to do? You left me and I forgave you but I can't forgive this Edward. I can't be in a marriage where you have other women. That's not fair to me and it's not fair for our child."

She moved to pull off her engagement ring, tears of frustration falling from the corners of her eyes as she found it stuck on her finger. She tugged again, only to have her hand stopped by his.

"Rosalie," he said, his voice breaking and she looked up to find him looking as frustrated and lost as her.

"What about her?" she asked.

He swallowed and pulled at his hair before looking back down at her. "My therapist recommended that I allow more people to touch me, to stop the flinching. Your sister hated me so much, she treated me like shit and to make up for it she's been helping me. So has Alice. It's fucking awkward as hell, letting them sit there and touch my face but it's helped."

She frowned, wiping away her tears but more fell. She didn't want to feel bad for him, she didn't want to feel the sympathy and compassion welling up in her chest. "That doesn't explain the woman."

He smiled at her sadly then, picking up her bandaged hand and kissing it so softly her heart broke. "Her name is Irina Powers. She's Tanya's girlfriend and she's an artist. If you had looked for a minute more you would have seen Tanya come out of the room and kiss her. She touched my face because she knew what I've been doing."

She sniffled and looked up at him, her eyes widening. "I still don't understand Edward. You've been distant all week and it doesn't explain that or tonight, I hardly saw you."

"I saw you as soon as you entered the ballroom," he told her, his emerald gaze intense in a way that she knew well. "I was hard the moment I laid eyes on you and it was really uncomfortable but all I could think about was the next time you were going to be wearing a white dress and it made me so fucking happy. You're beautiful Bella, the most beautiful woman I've ever seen ano I'm sorry I didn't tell you that or if I don't tell you enough. Every time I tried to get over to you tonight someone stopped me and I would have had you with me but the people I know are fucking assholes and I didn't want you to stand there with me and receive insults disguised as compliments."

He smiled at her then, so wide that it took her breath away. His eyes were brighter than she'd seen all week. "And as to where I've been all week, I've been working a lot but the rest of the time I've been sorting this out," he said, gesturing to the closed door to her right.

"What is it?" she asked, excitement bubbling in her chest.

"Open it," he encouraged.

Her hand was hesitant as she extended her arm to turn the door knob. She pushed the door open slowly and entered the dark room.

When he flicked the light on she gasped.

And then started crying.

"_Edward,_" she whispered, awe and shock pouring from her entire body.

He chuckled softly, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind and resting his chin on the top of her head. "Do you like it? Irina did it for me, she's been working on it all week, tonight she was showing me pictures of it because I hadn't seen it finished yet. I've been stuck in the office almost all week."

She looked around the large room, the back wall made up in almost all of its entirety by a window that overlooked the backyard filled with trees wrapped with fairy lights and her eyes swept along the walls, at the forest and meadow scenes painted on the wall in such detail it took her breath away. Fairies and woodland creatures danced in the forest, with small children flying kites in the meadow and Bella's heart nearly gave way as it swelled to ten times its normal size.

But it was the wall opposite the window that truly took her breath away. Covered in a painting of a large Disney-like castle, a bronze-haired prince looked up at a brunette princess standing at the window of a tower and it housed the only piece of furniture in the room.

A large mahogany crib.

Her breath caught in her throat then and she moved closer, taking him with her but something else caught her eye.

She noticed something about one of the fairies and pulled away from Edward to take a better look, gasping when she realised why the blonde haired beauty looked so familiar. It was Rosalie.

"Wow," she whispered, scared to touch the paint for fear of it being wet. She moved quickly then, noticing that the children flying the kite in the meadow were her nephews. She continued exploring, finding Alice and Jasper and Emmett and herself but it was the realisation of Edward being the prince at the bottom of the tower that brought her to her knees.

At her time at Masen Hall, he had made it a point that she know that he wasn't the good guy, he wasn't the prince she'd dreamed of as a child nor the kind of man a girl like her should fall in love with.

But she had.

She loved him so much she ached from it, that she felt it in her veins and all the way down to the fibre of her being. His love consumed her, was tattooed onto her soul and she knew there was no way back from it.

He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her onto his lap, burying his face into her neck before rocking her softly, backwards and forwards on the nursery floor until her tears subsided.

"I love you," she whispered after a few minutes of silence and he stiffened beneath her. "I love you so much it hurts. Even when you left I was drowning in it, scared to death because I needed you so much and I thought you didn't want me."

He held her tighter. "I wanted you so much it hurt. I've never needed anyone before so I made you leave. I pushed you away because you made me feel and it scared me but I love you so much Bella and you have to stay because I don't know what the hell I'm going to do if you leave me."

She pulled away from him then, pulling up her dress so that she could turn and face him, cupping his face in her hands and leaning down to kiss him. They kissed slowly and passionately, the both of them moaning when their tongues met and he pulled her closer, their chests colliding while their hearts pounded, seeming to try to reach each other. They were both panting when they parted, their eyes dilated and their breaths unsteady.

"I'm not going anywhere," she said, leaning down to kiss him again.

His smile came slowly but the unconcealed joy on his face was infectious and then she too was smiling. "You're staying?"

"Forever, if you'll have me," she replied, smiling through tears.

He answered with a kiss that made her heart stutter.

When she pulled back, her mouth was swollen and her cheeks were flushed but it was the look in her eyes that took his breath away. The lust and the love. For him. "I'm going to spend the rest of my life making it up to you."

She smiled softly.

"Take me to bed, Edward."

* * *

**See you again tomorrow! Also have you seen the new Fifty Shades trailer? _Wow._**

**Fic Rec:**

**Badlands by planetblue. #SANGRE**

_**Moonlight drives and sharpened knives. This is the story of us.**_


	40. Epilogue

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**I couldn't wait until tomorrow.**

**Thank you for coming on this ride with me. I can't even express how much every review, happy or angry or sad meant to me. I love you all so much. **

**If you want to read more from me, follow me. There will be outtakes and maybe future takes so make sure you're following this fic if you want to read more!**

* * *

Edward was woken by the sounds coming through the baby monitor on his bed side table and he stirred, wiping his eyes and sitting up slowly. One look to the empty pillow next to him told him all he needed to know and he smiled lazily, his body still groggy with sleep as he got out of the bed and made his way down the hallway into the nursery, softly lit by the dawn breaking over the tops of the mountains in the distance.

Tired but happy brown eyes met his and he smiled as he made his way over to the small double bed where his wife sat nursing his daughter. "Hey, Daddy," Bella whispered as she cradled their daughter's small head, smiling at him so tenderly that he fell in love with her all over again.

"How are my girls?" he asked, making his way to the other side of the bed and climbing in to sit next to them. He smiled as his daughter finished suckling, turning her head to give him a gummy smile that was probably just gas but in no way lessened the way his heart stuttered at the sight.

Abigail Esme Cullen had been born on April 15th, three days early and exactly a month after her parent's marriage.

It had taken a lot for Edward to convince Bella to finally marry him and it had taken her more than a painted nursery wall to forgive him, but he didn't complain when she yelled at him, didn't object when she threw a jar of pickles at him because he'd bought the only jar with a lid that refused to open. He'd deserved it for what he'd said to her, for the four months he'd made her spend without him and for every time after they'd reconciled that he treated her any less than the way she deserved.

The night he'd showed her the nursery for the first time, when she'd asked for him to take her to bed, they'd spent the night talking in between kisses, admitting faults and accepting apologies. Isabella Swan had been more than Edward could have ever hoped for, had given him the love he'd craved his entire life and a daughter who would love him unconditionally.

"You're so beautiful," he whispered, leaning in to drop a kiss to Bella's cheek and another to Abigail's soft, baby-smelling head. At three months old, she was still tiny and he feared every time that he touched her that she would disappear, or that he would hurt her somehow but she seemed to crave his attention as much as she craved her mother's and his heart welled every time he saw her baby blue eyes.

There was a large betting pool in their family about the colour they would turn in a few months but he continued to pray that they turned the same shade as Bella's.

"I'm sorry I didn't wake you but you looked so tired," she whispered as their daughter resumed suckling. She extended her hand to stroke his scarred cheek, the touch so familiar that he didn't notice it anymore, the therapy sessions he still attended aiding him in becoming the man both Bella and Abigail deserved.

He smiled. "I don't even know why we just don't sleep in here anymore."

She shook her head and rolled her eyes. It had been her idea for them to start sleeping in their bedroom again but even after a week they had yet to spend the entire night in their bedroom.

"She's going to have so much fun when she starts dating with a father like you," Bella giggled and he smirked, moving his finger until Abigail's hand was wrapped around it, the little girl not understanding that it was the other way around, that he was wrapped tightly around _her_ finger.

He smiled at them both. "I think she'll be okay with a mother like you to keep me in line."

"You're right," she agreed with a smile. They looked down at their daughter then, her bronze colored hair illuminated by the rising sun as she moved her face away from Bella's breast, letting them know that she'd had enough.

With practiced skill, Edward moved across the room to retrieve a towel, placing it over his shoulder before moving back to the bed where Bella handed him Abigail. He'd been terrified the first time she'd asked him to burp her, his reaction of fear so strong that it made everyone in the room laugh, including his nephews, who had no idea what they were laughing about.

Bella moved to lay on her side, gazing up at him with unconcealed adoration. "She's so perfect."

He smiled. "You both are."

"Do you know what today is?" she asked, tracing a finger over the soft skin on their daughter's leg.

He nodded, thinking about how he'd arrived at Masen Hall with the full intention of ruining one sister but instead had fallen head over ass for the other. "Most important day of my life," he told her.

She grinned at him then, all tired Bambi-eyes and flushed cheeks and so beautiful that not a day went by that she didn't take his breath away. "You saved me," she whispered.

He shook his head and looked down at their daughter and then back at her, his eyes filled with tears and gratitude. "No, Bella. You saved me."

THE END

* * *

**Some of you may not be completely satisfied with this, but in all honesty, I had never planned on having this fic as long as it was and it took a completely different direction towards the end. It didn't need any more angst and it was ALWAYS going to end where it did, the main plot of the story was them falling in love that first week.**

**I know a few of you thought that Edward never made up for leaving Bella and I'm sorry that you feel this way but I was never going to have ten more chapters of Edward grovelling. She loved him so much that she forgave him and it didn't happen overnight.**

**Facts about the first draft:**

**I'd originally planned for Rosalie to kill Royce and then herself but this changed when I started writing the chapter where Emmett was introduced and I realised that he had to save her.**

**Bella and Edward were going to get married in Vegas and then he would spend a month avoiding her until she confronted him where she tried to get an annulment and then he would lose it, start crying and then they'd reconcile and then the epilogue.**

**I'd contemplated Edward being in a car accident, after which Bella had forgiven him but I felt like she needed to do it on her own.**


	41. Outtake: The Diary of Rosalie

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**Stealing Bella has been voted the no.5 completed in November 2014 by visitors of twifanfictionrecs!**

**This is a small glimpse into a character who truly took a life of her own while I was writing and is my way of saying thank you to everyone who voted for this fic as well as twifanfictionrecs for considering this in the first place. If you like good fanfic, go to their site! This is unbeta'd!**

* * *

**The Diary of Rosalie Swan, age 15.**

_Renee's funeral was today. _

_I didn't feel anything but relief when they lowered her casket into the ground. Isn't that totally messed up? I cried when we got home, in the bathroom, so Is couldn't see. I didn't cry because I would miss her, I cried because she'd made me hate her so much that I was glad that she was gone. I hated the way she made me feel and the look on Isabella's face every time Renee rejected her. Is isn't strong like me…not that I'm even that strong in the first place but I'm the big sister, so it's my job to take care of her, we both know that Charlie won't._

_When I have kids, I'm going to make sure they know that I love them, that they're wanted and cherished. I'm going to be the best mom ever._

* * *

**The Diary of Rosalie Swan, age 16.**

_It's my 16__th__ birthday today. Is made me this amazing cake with icing Rose's and I nearly cried as I blew the candles out. Charlie's secretary sent me some flowers in his name, like she does every year. I wonder if he even remembered… He barely even lives here anymore and when he is around, he just ignores us, he wanders around like a ghost and I wonder what he was like when he was my age, if he was fun or rebellious or just someone more than he is now. I think Renee destroyed him, it was the only thing that she was ever good at._

_When I get married, I want my husband to be fun. I want him to smile all of the time and be loud and hilarious and larger than life. I want him to be alive and spontaneous and I want him to love me. Isabella is the only person who's ever loved me and it makes me angry, because I know I'm the only person who's ever loved her too and we deserved more than that._

* * *

**The Diary of Rosalie Swan, age 17.**

_I have a boyfriend for the first time in my life. His name is Royce King and he's the president of the student body, captain of the football team and he chose ME. _

_He makes me smile and Charlie approves because he's from one of the richest families this side of the U.S. and for the first time in a long time, things are looking up._

_I don't love him yet, but I'm sure that I will._

* * *

**The Diary of Rosalie Swan, age 18.**

_I just graduated. _

_Royce and I are both going to UW. I kind of wanted to go to NYU but he convinced me to stay. He's kind of possessive but it's okay because I know that he loves me. He tells me that we'll be together forever and that we were made for each other. I think he's going to propose._

_I don't think I want him to._

_When I picture walking down the aisle, the man standing there isn't him. I don't know who it is yet but I know it isn't Royce._

_I don't know how to break up with him though and I'm scared that if I do, no one will ever love me as much as he does._

* * *

**The Diary of Rosalie Swan – soon to be King, age 19.**

_He proposed tonight._

_I said yes._

_I kind of wish that I hadn't._

* * *

**The Diary of Rosalie Swan – son to be King, age 19.**

_I met Edward Cullen today. _

_Royce has been bitching about him since we met, spewing crap about the Cullen Bastard._

_He told me not to marry Royce._

_I spat in his face._

_I can't believe I did that._

_I don't want to be that kind of person, the kind of person like Royce's grandfather, who's heartless and cruel._

_Edward told me that Royce was dangerous and that I'd regret it if I married him and I spat at him._

_I think I hate him._

_I think I hate him because I know he's right._

* * *

**The Diary of Rosalie King, age 20.**

_I married him today._

_Is held me when I cried in the bathroom beforehand. I told her it was because I was overwhelmed, excited…not because I knew I was about to make the biggest mistake of my life in marrying someone I knew I wasn't in love with. I wanted to stop the wedding and I'd had every intention of doing so until Charlie had come in, smiling for the first time in what seemed like my entire life. He'd told me that he was proud of me so I kept my mouth shut, too overcome with emotion to say anything. _

_I'm a fucking idiot. _

_A married idiot._

* * *

**The Diary of Rosalie King, age 21.**

_I'm pregnant._

_I wanted to leave him but now I can't. _

_I never wanted it to be like this and there's no way I would ever consider getting rid of this baby. MY baby. I love it so much already. _

_Is it bad that I want him to tell me to have an abortion so that I can leave him. Is would help me raise him and Charlie left us enough money in his will so that we'd be comfortable for a while._

_I'm going to be a mom. _

_I can't wait._

* * *

**The Diary of Rosalie King, age 22.**

_Henry Charles King._

_He's so perfect, I cry every single time I look at him. Ugh, I'm crying now. I don't think I could have done it if Is wasn't there, she held my hand the entire time. Royce refused to even come in the room and when they handed Henry to him, he looked so awkward, so detached and he handed him back to me as soon as he could._

_I wonder if that's how Charlie looked when they handed me to him for the first time._

_It doesn't matter though, because I already love Henry more than anyone else ever could and I'm going spend every second of every single day making sure he knows that. I will not become my parents, even if Royce is almost already there._

* * *

**The Diary of Rosalie King, age 23.**

_Royce hit me today._

_I yelled at him for missing his son's first birthday and he backhanded me. _

_He cried afterwards and begged me to forgive him. I told him I did, but there's no way in hell I will. I hate him. I hate him for trapping me and I hate him for hitting me and for not loving our son the way he deserves._

_For the sake of Henry, I have to leave him._

* * *

**The Diary of Rosalie King, age 24.**

_I'm pregnant again._

_I slept with him last month, when I drank too much at a gala so that I would be able to at least pretend that I liked being around him._

_And now I'm pregnant._

_I don't want to let another child into this life…into this marriage. I can't get rid of it though, I would regret it my entire life._

_I'm glad Isabella moved in, I think I'd go insane without her. I used to think I was the strong one, but it's definitely her. She's eighteen and she's the strongest, most selfless person I've ever met._

_If it's a girl, I'm going to name it after her, I don't care if Royce says no. It isn't like he's ever showed any interest in Henry's life._

* * *

**The Diary of Rosalie King, age 25.**

_I went to the bank today, to withdraw my trust fund so that Isabella, the kids and I could leave._

_It's all gone._

_They told me that my husband has been making monthly withdrawals for the past year._

_I wish I'd never met him. _

_I wish I'd never married him._

_I wish I'd been stronger._

_I don't know if I can keep doing this._

* * *

**The Diary of Rosalie King, age 26.**

_I'm so fucking stupid._

_I did a line of coke last night, in the bathroom of a gala with a couple of the women Royce has insisted I be friends with._

_I felt numb afterwards and it was the best I'd felt in such a long time._

_I'm coming down now though and it feels like shit, I can't stop crying._

_I'm scared to death too, because I want to feel that numb again._

_I didn't even feel it when Royce grabbed my arm tightly and threw me against the wall when I refused to sleep with him. I've been secretly taking the pill since Ethan was born though, for when I have no choice but to open my legs for him. I'm not letting another child into this family. There are bruises forming from where he held me and I can feel those. _

_It's getting harder to hide them from Isabella. She's suspicious and too damn smart for her own good. Royce is hardly letting me spend any time with her know and in turn, my sons, I think he thinks that we're planning to leave, even though he's made that impossible._

_I never wanted this life, not for me or Is or Henry and Ethan and I hate myself for not being stronger._

* * *

**The Diary of Rosalie King, age 26.**

_I can't stop. _

_I can't stop and I hate myself for it._

_I'm never at home so I can hide it from Is but whenever I'm not high I can feel myself starting to unravel, and I do another line to stay together._

_I've started borrowing money from Edward Cullen to buy it._

_He never asks what it's for, but I know he knows. He doesn't care though, he likes having this kind of power over Royce, who would kill me if he ever knew. Last month I'd had to spend a week away to hide the black eye he'd given me when I asked him if he could wipe the other women's lipstick off his dick before trying to get me to suck it as well._

_I can feel myself starting to turn into Renee and I hate myself for it, but it's the only way I'll survive._

* * *

**The Diary of Rosalie King, age 27.**

_I knew the first time that I borrowed money from Edward Cullen that it wouldn't end well for me._

_I was right._

_I've borrowed more than I'll ever be able to pay back without Royce finding out and now Cullen is demanding payment…in the form of sex._

_A week, he said. I have to spend an entire week with him._

_They've only just taken the cast off of my arm from where Royce broke it and he hasn't hit me since, so I can't use that as an excuse to get away._

_I don't know what I'm going to do._

_He demanded I get clean too, before he fucks me. That's what he said._

_I don't know what I'm going to do._

* * *

**The Diary of Rosalie King, age 27.**

_I've been clean for an entire week._

_It's the longest I've been clean in nearly a year. Is it totally fucked up that I'm proud of myself? I mean, it hurts like hell, my entire body feels like it's on fire and I haven't slept in days but I'm clean._

_I still don't know what I'm going to do about Cullen. _

_I'll tell Is. She's going to hate me for everything I've done but she's never let me down and that's more than I can say for myself. She's practically raising my children herself and I'm…I'm fucked up._

* * *

**The Diary of Rosalie King, age 27.**

_She's going in my place._

_She said she'd take care of it._

_She's a virgin. She's been saving it for someone special and now Cullen's going to take it like it's nothing. I hate him for that. I hope he doesn't hurt her, I've already done that enough._

* * *

**The Diary of Rosalie King, age 27. **

_Cullen left a watch dog, Emmett McCarty._

_In less than a day of my sister being gone, he's already made it known that he's watching me, making sure I won't relapse. I won't. I know I won't but it doesn't stop the little voice in the back of my head telling me to do a line._

_I'm kind of glad he's watching over me though, it makes me feel a little safer in a world where I know I'm never safe._

_It doesn't hurt that he isn't bad to look at either._

* * *

**The Diary of Rosalie King, age 27.**

_I've can't remember ever crying this much in my life. It's four am and I can't stop crying._

_I'm crying for Isabella, for the unfairness in her life, the unfairness that I was wholly responsible for._

_I'm crying for my sons, who don't know how to act around me, despite the fact that I am their mother. I'm no better than Renee at this point and I swear to god, I'm going to spend the rest of my life making it up to Henry and Ethan. _

_I owe Isabella everything for giving them the love they deserve._

* * *

**The Diary of Rosalie King, age 27.**

_I did something stupid today._

_I got in Emmett McCarty's car._

_He followed me to the grocery store in this big, ugly Jeep and waited in the parking lot while I went in and bought ice cream. I've finally started putting on weight again, I don't look that much like a ghost anymore. _

_It pissed me off that he followed me in there. What was I going to do? Buy drugs in the parking lot? So I got in his car, fully prepared to yell at him. I cried instead._

_And he held me the entire time._

_I don't remember the last time anyone held me like that._

_And when he saw the bruises on my arms, he held me tighter._

_And I can't stop thinking about how good he smelled and how soft his shirt felt before I soaked it with my tears. He told me he didn't care and I knew, even without looking at his face, that he meant it._

_We spent the rest of the afternoon talking in the parking lot, about nothing and everything and I smiled for the first time in what felt like forever, then the guilt hit me and I stopped smiling and started crying again. He wiped my tears away._

_It hurts my heart to think about Emmett, because I know that I could never in a thousand years be worthy of a person like him._

* * *

**The Diary of Rosalie King.**

_I went back to the store today, using the excuse of melted ice cream so that I would be able to see him again but when I pulled into the parking lot, his big red Jeep did not._

_It hurt like hell but I was secretly relieved, knowing how dangerous it would have been if I had let myself be around him again._

_I've only seen Royce a few times in the month that I've been clean and he's already starting to realise that I'm not as dazed as I was before. I can't imagine what would happen if he found me with another man, especially one of Edward Cullen's best friends._

* * *

**The Diary of Rosalie King, age 27.**

_He was back today._

_I spent the entire night telling myself that the day in the parking lot was a figment of my imagination and that the chemistry I'd thought was there really isn't._

_It is though. It really fucking is._

_I'm falling for him._

_I don't want to, but I am._

_He makes me laugh in a way that I haven't since I was a teenager, before I'd met Royce and makes me think about a life I'd long since let go._

_I wish I'd met him before._

* * *

**The Diary of Rosalie King, age 27.**

_I've been calling the boys every day, trying to build more of a relationship with them. Ethan's too young to have realised what a shitty mother I've been and every time I hear a smile in his voice, I cry for the fact that I still have a chance. Henry is much too like me to let me in just yet. He's sceptical and suspicious and I'm glad for the fact, I like being able to earn his trust back, but at the same time, I weep that I lost it in the first place._

_Emmett has been helping me, talking to me, encouraging me and I can't help but think about a life in which my boys were half his._

_Is still hasn't returned any of my calls and I'm going crazy every hour I don't hear from her. Emmett has assured me she'd safe and I believe him, but I'm still worried._

_He's also talked a lot about Edward and I'm starting to realise that once again, Royce has fucked me up. Cullen isn't half the monster Royce is, despite everything he's ever said in the contrary._

* * *

**The diary of Rosalie King, age 27.**

_She finally called._

_The debt's gone._

_THE DEBT'S GONE._

_She isn't coming home yet though and I could hear it in her voice…she's falling in love with him._

_I hope he doesn't fuck it up._

* * *

**The Diary of Rosalie King, age 27.**

_Is comes home in two days. It makes me both happy and sad because I miss her, but sad because then Emmett will no longer have reason to be hanging around._

_I'm falling for him…_

_I'm falling for him hard._

* * *

**The Diary of Rosalie King, age 27.**

_Emmett and I spent the day in a park over an hour's drive from my house. Neither of us wanted to risk being seen. Isabella is coming back tomorrow and he and I both wanted to spend the last of our time together, by being together. _

_He kept looking at all of the little kids playing and asked me a hundred questions about mine._

_I love him._

_And I can't have him._

_I didn't tell him that I called my mother in law to keep my sons for a few more days or that yesterday, Royce fired everyone who works in our house. He knows something's different with me and I won't risk my sons being exposed to his wrath when I tell him tomorrow that I'm leaving him._

* * *

**The Diary of Rosalie King, age 27.**

_Royce is dead._

_I'm a widow._

_I'm free._

* * *

**The Diary of Rosalie Swan, age 27.**

_I hate Edward Cullen. _

_I hate him for making my sister fall in love with him and then leaving her the second that things didn't go his way. _

_I hate him for the sad look that she's been sporting every single day for a month._

_I hate him._

* * *

**The Diary of Rosalie Swan, age 27.**

_Emmett comes around every day._

_I'm in love with him and so are my boys but I can't risk my heart – or theirs._

* * *

**The Diary of Rosalie Swan, age 27.**

_She's pregnant._

_My baby sister is pregnant and Cullen is a fucking idiot._

_I'll be here for her though, I won't let her down._

* * *

**The Diary of Rosalie Swan, age 27.**

_I started working today. _

_I feel like I could fly, I'm so happy. _

_Emmett sent me flowers, huge white peonies that make me smile every time I think about them._

_Royce has been gone for a few months now and I finally feel like I can breathe again._

_I just wish Cullen would pull his head out of his ass and call my sister._

_I hate hearing her cry at night._

* * *

**The Diary of Rosalie Swan, age 27.**

_That fucking idiot. It must be a fucking gene or something for men in that family to be uncontrollable assholes._

_She's four months pregnant, with his child, is irrevocably in love with him and he's gallivanting all over the media with some blonde bitch._

_I'm going to see him._

_I'm going to put my foot up his ass._

* * *

**The Diary of Rosalie Swan, age 28.**

_I watched Bella get married today. _

_Henry and Ethan walked her down the aisle and gave her to the man I never thought would be worthy of her. She looked beautiful and they both cried and my heart is almost bursting out of my chest with love – for them both._

_Cullen had come a very long way._

_Bella deserved a fairy tale, she deserved the prince and the castle and the happily ever after and while Edward isn't a prince, I know for a fact that he'll spend every day for the rest of his life treating her and their daughter like princesses._

_Emmett winked at me during their vows and mouthed '_us next_' and I tried not to smile, but I did. He moved in last month and while I know we'll need a bigger house eventually, I've never felt more at home._

_I'm so in love with him it hurts and he's been so incredibly patient with me. Henry and Ethan think he's a hero and he kind of is._

_He saved me._

* * *

**The Journal of Emmett McCarty, age 30.**

_SHE SAID YES._

* * *

**I hope that you liked this. I had a great time writing it.**

**If you want to read more of my writing, I have a new fic out called Afire Love!**


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